The Feet of Falling Asleep

Photo by Anna Nekrashevich: https://www.pexels.com/photo/a-person-in-bed-wearing-gray-socks-6603667/

Nope, that’s not a typo/misspelling in the title – it’s an incredibly clever play on words!

You see, there’s a simple, effective trick to help you fall asleep faster and it involves your feet.

What it comes down to is…

Warm feet = faster to sleep.

Multiple studies have shown that warming your feet for 20 minutes to an hour before bed will help you to fall asleep faster – although it should be noted that this effect typically declines in older people.

But what do the feet have to do with it?

The prevailing theory is that warming the feet causes vasodilation in them, drawing circulation away from the body’s core. It is well-established that most people’s core body temperature typically drops a few degrees before entering the sleep cycle. So, by warming the feet and drawing warm blood away from the core, it is believed that it sends a signal to your brain to prepare to sleep.

How warm are we talking? Just wearing socks alone may be sufficient if they’re enough to keep your feet warm.

For greater warming effects, using a heating pad, soaking your feet in warm water, or putting them in front of a space heater and getting them nice and toasty, again, 20 to 60 minutes before bed, are relatively easy options.

But the simplest method is just to wear some warm socks.

I have tried the sock method myself, and while I don’t usually have too much trouble falling asleep anyway, it does seem to go a little faster when I wear socks before I go to bed, and continue wearing them once in bed. It seems to work best on cooler nights, but that may also be a general comfort issue as much as my feet being warmer.

The other advantage of wearing socks to bed is that they provide a small amount of padding if you happen to get up in the middle of the night and jam your toe on something. No, it’s not enough to even slightly minimize the pain, but it may muffle the cracking noise coming from the joints of your toe so as not to wake your sleeping partner (assuming you can avoid screaming out in agony and/or knocking stuff over as you hop around on your uninjured foot).

So, if you have trouble falling asleep, try warming your feet and perhaps you too will discover the joy of socks!

Until next time…

George F. Best, D.C.