How a hot bath can help you to de-stress after a long day

There’s nothing better than sinking into a lovely warm bath after a long day, particularly in the winter when it’s extra nippy outside. There aren’t many more things as relaxing as a nice hot bath, but did you also know that a soak in the tub can actually improve your health? Here at NPM Bathrooms, we’ve been providing our customers with exquisite bathroom and wet room designs for over 30 years. In that time, we’ve certainly learned a lot about the health benefits that a hot bath can offer you, so allow us to share this knowledge with you.

Hot water heals with passive heating

In Japanese culture, bathing represents more than just the cleansing of your physical body. It’s actually thought of as an extremely therapeutic ritual of sorts that allows those who do it to purify themselves of the day-to-day spiritual grind of life. So how does it do this? Well, it’s believed that the warm water causes your skin to release endorphins in the same way that it does when it’s exposed to sunlight. Because the blood flow to your skin increases, this can be both therapeutic and invigorating.

A warm bath can actually improve your respiratory rate as well. The combination of the warmth of the water and the pressure on your chest increases both your lung capacity and oxygen intake. One eye-opening study collected data from 14 participants and found that soaking in an hourlong hot bath burned as many calories (around 140) as a 30-minute walk. What’s more, the study also found that the hot soak also evoked positive anti-inflammatory and blood sugar responses.

Baths help to relieve pain

So, we’ve established that a hot bath can improve blood circulation, and release endorphins within your skin which help you to feel invigorated, but did you also know that these same qualities can also assist you with pain relief? For instance, stress can cause the muscles in your body to contact, and a hot bath can relieve those symptoms by keeping the muscles loose. Essentially, hot baths can provide physical comfort and help to ease the blues brought on by aches and pains.

Hot baths relieve stress

Of course, when you couple the factors we’ve discussed above, there’s enough evidence to support the idea that hot baths so indeed relive stress. However there’s one more factor worth mentioning, which is that taking a bath can activate your parasympathetic nervous system (the part of your body responsible for relaxation), which activates once your body makes contact with the warm water. The activation of this system is what gives you that feeling of lowered stress and increased relaxation. 

So, those are just a few of the ways in which taking a bath can greatly improve your relaxation levels and benefit your health. Of course, if you’re thinking of updating your bathroom design, we’ll be here to guide you through every step of the process here at NPM Bathrooms. If you need of some inspiration, feel free to browse through our customer bathrooms right here on our site, or if you have any questions regarding how we can help you create the bathroom you’ve always dreamed of, contact us on 01282 697717, or drop us an email at info@npmbathrooms.co.uk. We’re always happy to help!