Sleeping With Socks Has Some Proven Sleep Benefits

Getting quality sleep every night is very important, and while many people know that it is important to get enough sleep, they don’t realize that there are a number of different things that can impact their quality of sleep. After all, getting a solid 7 to 9 hour of sleep every night can help you stay happy and healthy, while not getting enough sleep can lead to issues with everything from your memory and concentration to your overall mood.

While most people know that getting enough sleep is important, this isn’t always as easy as it seems. The temperature of the room, the bedding you use and even what you wear can all make a serious impact on your quality of sleep.

When it comes to choosing what to wear to sleep, there are many people who choose to sleep with their socks on. The thing to remember about sleeping with socks on is about more than just keeping your feet warm at night—there are actually a number of proven benefits that come with sleeping with socks on. If you have been considering sleeping with socks on, we have curated a comprehensive collection of the most pertinent facts about sleeping with socks on so you can decide if sleeping with socks on is the right solution for you.

Socks Help You Fall Asleep

If you are someone who struggles to fall asleep at night, then socks may be a great solution for you. One study on the perks of wearing socks to bed found that it can actually help regulate your body’s internal temperature regulation. According this 2007 study, adults who wore normal socks (or heated sock) actually got to sleep faster than those who didn’t. This actually has to with warming up your skin—which is another proven way to help you get to sleep.

The theory behind this is that most people’s core body temperature drops during the night and by warming up the feet, releases heat through the skin, helping you to lower your core body temperature. This actually sends a signal to the brain, letting your brain know it is bedtime.

Wearing socks to bed is a great way to help you fall asleep, and if you have particularly cold feet you can also try wearing heated socks to bed. However, if you are waring heated socks, make sure that you don’t overheat them. If your socks are too hot they can burn the skin, keep you up, cause discomfort and even be a fire hazard if you aren’t careful.

Compression Socks Are Bad

While there are many benefits of sleeping with regular, breathable, athletic socks on, this doesn’t mean that all socks are going to deliver the same benefits. This is particularly important to remember when it comes to compression socks.

Avoid sleeping with compression socks.

While there are some benefit to wearing compression socks, you shouldn’t wear them to bed. Compression socks can improve circulation, but they are not meant to be worn in the middle of the night. Otherwise, they can actually block blood flow when you are lying down and sleeping.

Instead of wearing compression socks, you should wear soft cotton, merino wool or cashmere socks to bed. Do your best to avoid artificial fiber socks. Make sure that the socks are comfortable, not too tight, but not so loose that they fall off.

Body Temperature

Body temperature is a big factor when it comes to helping you fall asleep and stay asleep, and socks are an easy way to help you regulate that body temperature. Before you can really understand the way that socks can impact your sleep, it is important to understand how body temperature can impact your sleep first. Your body temperature is regulated by a system known as your body’s circadian rhythm. However, the other thing that your circadian rhythm impacts is your sleep cycle. This is what it responsible for helping you feel tired at night and awake in the morning.

Throughout the day, your body temperature is going to slowly rise until it peaks in the later afternoon—which is also when most people tend to feel most awake and alert. When your body temperature starts to drop and eventually reaches it lowest point at night, you are going to feel more tired.

If you sleep with your socks on, it can actually help you regulate those body temperature regulation cycles. This is the main theory behind why socks are so great for those with sleeping issues. More specifically, here are a few ways that simply putting on a pair of socks will not only help your body temperature, but your ability to sleep as well.  

Vasodilation

Vasodilation is the dilation of blood vessels in your extremities, particularly in your hands and feet. It is important to have vasodilation in your hands and feet so that your blood vessels can open up and can redistribute heat throughout your entire body. This is why vasodilation is important even if you don’t feel like your hands and feet are cold.

This process is important for overall heat distribution and for regulating your body temperature. By wearing socks at night, it can help regulate your body temperature so that your body is ready to fall asleep and stay asleep on your new latex mattress. There was even a study on this process which found that vasodilation in the feet from wearing socks can actually help people fall asleep faster by an average of 15 minutes.

Prevent Hot Flashes

Hot flashes can be a common side effect of a number of health conditions and are very common in menopausal and pre-menopausal women. Hot flashes can happen virtually any time and can be very overwhelming, leading to flushing, palpitations, sweating and more.

When hot flashes happen in the middle of the night, they can prevent anyone from falling asleep or staying asleep. Research on hot flashes and sleep have found that socks can actually lower your core body temperature in the middle of the night, which can help prevent hot flashes.

Reducing Raynaud’s Symptoms

Raynaud’s disease is a common condition that causes people to frequently have cold hands and feet. This condition impacts the blood vessels in the skin and can cause “attacks” of cold and numb hands and feet. Typically, these attacks happen when the individual is stressed, anxious or cold. Sometimes, serious attacks can even cause the fingers and toes to change color.

While anyone with Raynaud’s disease should visit their doctor for treatment, there are other things that they can do to help lessen the severity of this condition. By simply wearing socks to bed, people with Raynaud’s disease can reduce the severity and frequency of their cold attacks and lessen the likelihood of these attacks keeping them up at night.

Other Benefits of Sleeping With Socks On

In addition to body temperature regulation, there are other benefits that can come with sleeping with your socks on.

• Improving Circulation- If you struggle with circulation issues to your feet, either at bedtime or throughout the day, wearing socks to bed can help you. Start by giving yourself a foot massage before bed using a massage oil or your favorite lotion. Then, warm your socks up in the dryer and put a warm pair of socks on and head to bed.

• Helping With Dry and Cracked Feet- If you have painful, cracked skin on your feet or heels, moisturize your feet right before bed and put a pair of natural cotton socks on your feet to help keep the lotion and moisture in.

• Improving Your Sex Life- According to one study on socks and sleep, researchers accidentally found a correlation between wearing socks to bed and sexual satisfaction. Wearing socks actually increased a person’s ability to have an orgasm by 30 percent.

You can enjoy benefits like this in addition to better sleep, just by putting your favorite pair of socks on before heading to sleep.

Alternatives to Wearing Socks in Bed

Wearing socks to bed can come with a number of great benefits—all related to body temperature regulation and control. However, if you find that wearing socks to bed is uncomfortable, then there are some alternatives that can help deliver similar temperature regulation benefits.

• Taking a warm bath, or even a warm foot bath before going to bed on your new organic mattress.

• Adding an extra blanket over the foot of the bed to keep the feet warm.

• Putting on a pair or warm or heated slippers in the 30 minutes you spend before going to bed.

• Sleeping with a heating pad or a hot water bottle at the bottom of your bed near your feet.

Give these alternative options a try and you can enjoy similar benefits to wearing socks to sleep.

Consider Wearing Socks To Bed To Improve The Quality Of Sleep

If you have been looking for a new way to improve the quality of sleep you get every night, consider wearing socks to bed. However, avoid sleeping with compressions socks to bed. There has been a great deal of research done on this topic and there is a lot of information out there regarding sleeping with your socks on and how socks can help you with your nightly temperature regulation.

Of course, if you are still going back and forth, you can always consider adding socks to your nighttime routine—you never know how much you may end up liking the benefits of sleeping in this way.

Shana Thompson is a full time professional writer and editor. Shana has worked extensively in the fields of content marketing, on-page and off-page SEO (guest posts, backlink acquisition), and creative writing. As an experienced pro content writer, Shana has worked on several magazines, publishing companies and marketing agencies. Many recent projects have included everything from nutrition and health services, where a lot of research and citations were needed, to writing about health, sustainable, eco-friendly products.

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