The Chillest Way to Recover

Are you ready for the coolest puns you've ever read? 

A good friend of mine, Kenny Barnes, couldn't stop raving about his Chili Pad. Now, Kenny is usually a pretty chill guy. He was always the cool, calm, collected voice-of-reason on Love is Blind. His dad jokes seemed to effortlessly roll off his tongue, and his sly smile was always about to share some kind of sarcasm or silliness. To make someone like Kenny rave about something, this Chili Pad thing had to be good. 

Chili Pad is a company that makes temperature regulated products designed to enhance rest and recovery. Given my active lifestyle and perpetual need for rejuvenation, this mission caught my interest. I recently invested in a Garmin smart watch to track my sleep, steps, VO2, exercise activites, and the like. So, I decided to do a little testing with this new Chili Pad product that had Kenny on ice. 

 I did some research on their products, and chose their newest model, the Ooler. What drew me to the Ooler was the smartphone-controlled temperature that was programmable by hour. This could pre-cool my bed to an optimal sleeping temperature before I pulled back the covers, and it could warm me awake gradually in the morning. I chose to start experimenting with sleep temperatures at 65 degrees, based off Chili Pad recommendations, then after about a week, I went down to 60 degrees, where I still am now. I also chose to raise the temperature 5 degrees every 30 minutes starting at 6AM. I prefer this wake up method to an abrupt alarm clock, and I am usually out of bed by 7AM as a result. 

Prior to experimenting with Ooler, I averaged about 9 hours of sleep per night. Of those 9 hours, I typically got 6.5 hours of light sleep, 1.5 hours of deep sleep, and 1 hour of REM sleep. One of the claims of Chili Pad is that REM sleep percentage will increase because the body will be able to enter the deep relaxation and recovery state more efficiently, which leads to more REM sleep being possible. 

After a week of Ooler, I was getting less sleep overall, and more REM sleep per night. On a sample 8 hour sleep night, I got 4.5 hours of light sleep, 1 hour of deep sleep, and 2.5 hours of REM sleep. My dreams were more vivid and useful (I use a dream journal and work on lucid dreaming - leave a comment if you'd like me to share my practice with those). I also felt refreshed and ready to move, think, or do a more challenging workout first thing in the morning, which usually sets me up to have a better day overall. 

Less sleep quantity with higher sleep quality? Revolutionary. Here's some science to back up sleeping at cooler temperatures:

- Increase metabolism by up to 10%

- Increase muscle recovery by up to 30%

- Increase melatonin production which improves mood, weight loss, brain health, and anti-aging

- Increase amount of REM sleep by up to 2x (I experience almost this exact result!)

I recommended it to friends, who also invested in Ooler to keep cool during the summer, and now I'm doing the same for you. I've used this product for over 4 months, and I love it. I wouldn't recommend something I haven't tried, tested, and approve of. So, if you want to upgrade your sleep, recovery, and performance, give Ooler a try. Here's my link, and reach out to me for a code if you're interested in saving a little money. 

Here are some other reviews from people in the Chili Pad community:

Stay cool, unlike me (except when I sleep, thanks to Ooler). 

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