What are the benefits of sleeping in socks: unexpected findings of scientists

What is bet­ter for you — to sleep in socks to fall asleep faster, or to give your feet “com­plete free­dom” and the oppor­tu­ni­ty for the skin to breathe?

Stud­ies say that you can choose any option, but if you pre­fer to sleep in socks, you need to choose prod­ucts care­ful­ly. There is a type of socks that is dan­ger­ous dur­ing night rest.

Those cute habits

When part­ners sleep togeth­er, over time they get used to each oth­er’s cute habits. Some­one sleeps only in paja­mas and even in the sum­mer heat can­not fall asleep with­out cov­er­ing the body with a light blan­ket. Anoth­er does not tol­er­ate clothes dur­ing sleep and believes that sleep­ing naked is good for health and for a good inti­mate life.

There are those among them who go to bed only in socks, and in con­trast to them oth­ers who are con­vinced that sleep­ing in socks is a bad habit.

Who is right and who is not in the sit­u­a­tion with socks, sci­en­tists decid­ed to find out. And here’s the con­clu­sion they came to.

Sleeping in socks: incredible health benefits

“There are many ben­e­fits to wear­ing socks in bed,” says founder Inter­na­tion­al par­ent­ing and Health Insti­tute Asso­ci­a­tion of pro­fes­sion­al sleep Con­sul­tants — Mar De Car­lo. “Socks can help peo­ple fall asleep faster due to a phe­nom­e­non called dis­tal vasodi­la­tion.”

It is known that fluc­tu­a­tions in body tem­per­a­ture can affect the body’s abil­i­ty to fall asleep and main­tain sleep. For exam­ple, a 2007 study found that wear­ing socks in bed improved cir­cu­la­tion and increased blood flow to the legs, which in turn helped low­er over­all body tem­per­a­ture, sig­nal­ing to the brain that it’s time to sleep.

The find­ings in 2018 were con­firmed by a sci­en­tif­ic exper­i­ment involv­ing vol­un­teers. He showed that peo­ple who wear socks fall asleep on aver­age 7.5 min­utes faster, sleep 32 min­utes longer and wake up 7.5 times less often than those who sleep with­out socks.

Anoth­er ben­e­fit of sleep­ing in socks is that this sim­ple piece of cloth­ing reduces the like­li­hood of hav­ing a Ray­naud’s attack. This is a dis­ease that usu­al­ly affects the toes and fin­gers, in which, due to impaired blood cir­cu­la­tion, the skin begins to swell and hurt. Var­i­ous stud­ies have shown that wear­ing socks at night can help pre­vent an attack of the dis­ease by main­tain­ing nor­mal blood cir­cu­la­tion.

A pair of socks worn before bed can also save menopausal women from night­time hot flash­es. Although there are many rea­sons for their occur­rence, the main one being hor­mon­al changes, one old study proved the effec­tive­ness of this method. When women slept in socks, they were less like­ly to expe­ri­ence neg­a­tive symp­toms.

It is use­ful to wear socks in bed for those who decide not to sleep, but to make love. Sci­en­tists from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Gronin­gen ini­ti­at­ed a study involv­ing 13 cou­ples in love. An exper­i­ment showed that wear­ing socks before bed increased the like­li­hood of an orgasm by 30%. The sci­en­tists say that since orgasm is the result of blood flow to the gen­i­tals, the results of the study should not be sur­pris­ing, since wear­ing socks sup­ports healthy blood cir­cu­la­tion.

Sleeping with bare feet: is there any benefit?

Accord­ing to sci­en­tists, the ben­e­fits of sleep­ing with­out socks are not as clear as dream­ing with them. Stud­ies basi­cal­ly show that if a per­son does not have prob­lems with the blood cir­cu­la­tion of the body, and he does not freeze at night, then there is not much point in putting on this cute lit­tle thing. More­over, wear­ing any addi­tion­al wardrobe item can con­tribute to over­heat­ing.

In addi­tion, going to bed with­out socks can avoid the side effects of poor hygiene. “Socks can be dirty or moldy, which can lead to skin infec­tions and odors,” the expert warns. Mar De Car­lo.

Experts also acknowl­edge that some peo­ple are more com­fort­able sleep­ing with­out socks than with them on.

Which socks are best for sleeping

Sleep­ing in socks is use­ful not only for main­tain­ing blood cir­cu­la­tion in the limbs. Wear­ing socks at night can be ben­e­fi­cial in terms of main­tain­ing the health and beau­ty of the skin of the feet. Founder Inter­na­tion­al par­ent­ing and Health Insti­tute Mar De Car­lo says that mois­tur­iz­ing the skin of the feet and then wear­ing cot­ton socks at night can help get rid of cracked heels, sore skin, and in gen­er­al mois­tur­ize and nour­ish the skin of the feet.

For those who choose to sleep in socks for the sake of good dreams, prod­ucts from cer­tain tex­tures can be rec­om­mend­ed. “Wear clean socks made from nat­ur­al mate­ri­als such as cash­mere, meri­no wool, bam­boo or cot­ton to bed,” the expert rec­om­mends. “These mate­ri­als pro­vide prop­er warmth and breatha­bil­i­ty and main­tain over­all skin hygiene.”

At the same time, there is a kind of socks that can­not be used at night. These are com­pres­sion socks. They should not be worn unless oth­er­wise advised by a doc­tor.

Accord­ing to experts Cleve­land Clin­ic, Wear­ing com­pres­sion socks dur­ing the day is often rec­om­mend­ed for peo­ple with chron­ic venous insuf­fi­cien­cy, a con­di­tion that caus­es poor cir­cu­la­tion. They can help relieve increased pres­sure in the veins of the legs when peo­ple move, stand or sit for long peri­ods of time. But they are not rec­om­mend­ed for use at night in bed.

Conclusion

Whether you decide to sleep in socks or don’t, there are ways to fall asleep faster and sleep more sound­ly. A warm­ing foot mas­sage using aro­mat­ic oils and a hot foam bath with the addi­tion of sea salt are very effec­tive. Alter­na­tive­ly, lie down in bed with your feet on a warm heat­ing pad.

These sim­ple rit­u­als will warm the limbs and help the body “reboot”, leav­ing behind a busy day and prepar­ing for sweet dreams.

Be healthy!