Hot shower as a tranquilizer?

[busybuddy09]

This paper:
Shevchuk N.A. Hydrotherapy as a possible neuroleptic and sedative treatment. Medical Hypotheses. 2008, vol. 70, issue 2, pp. 230-238.

This idea has not been tested in clinical trials, but in my own experience a lengthy (head-out) hot shower or bath, to the point that it makes you tired and sweaty, seems to have a strong sedative effect.

[busybuddy09]

Looks like exposure to cold may work just as well for patients with anxiety:
Rymaszewska J, Ramsey D, Chladzinska-Kiejna S. Whole-body cryotherapy as adjunct treatment of depressive and anxiety disorders. Archivum Immunologiae et Therapiae Experimentalis. (Warsaw). 2008 Jan-Feb;56(1):63-68.