WARM FEET AID SLEEP
Our unfunded, and somewhat-scientific study suggests that warm feet are a good thing - by a margin of almost three to one.

And There's MORE!
 

We had this idea that by wearing socks to bed a person would get a better night's sleep. After all, we bundle our newborns up and put booties on them - and they sleep like babies. The idea had been bouncing around for a few years and we had an opportunity to test the idea. We enrolled 32 people to participate in our study. The participants were asked to wear socks and to warm the foot of their bed with a hot water bottle. They are very inexpensive and last a long time. Just add hot tap water before bed and you're all set. Click HERE for an Online Source of Hot Water Bottles

We discovered that warm feet, and wearing socks to bed equates to better sleep.

Our data report sheet was divided into two sections - a 3 week period where the socks and warming bag were used and a 7 day period where the person was to NOT use the warming bag or wear socks. Here are the numbers.

Three Times Better Sleep. The participants were asked to rate their sleep as "better" than usual or "about the same" as usual. The total score for the "better" responses was 292. The score for the "about the same" group was 100. Wearing socks and having warm feet resulted in almost three times (actually 2.92) better sleep - according to our scale.

Then we looked at the 7 days when the participants did not have warm feet. The respondents basically wanted their foot warmers and socks back - by a margin of 2.68 to 1.

There you have it folks - if you wear socks to bed and keep your feet nice and warm you will probably sleep a whole lot better.

If you don't sleep well, try wearing socks and warming the foot of the bed (do not use an electric heating pad or blanket - unless you turn it off before going to bed). If that doesn't work for you then don't do it. I don't recommend electric blankets because of the controversy around electromagnetic fields generated by the heating elements in the blankets.

A Special Tip: Use COTTON SOCKS. Brands with other substances can be uncomfortable. A lot of those synthetic fibers feel like you've wrapped your foot in plastic wrap. Pure cotton is best - for socks and all nightclothes and bedding.

Why does wearing socks make sleeping better? I don't know for sure - but I have a couple of ideas. For one, when a person sleeps in a cold place - or on a water bed that has cool water - their body needs to WORK to generate heat. That's work during a time when we should be resting. It isn't good to try to work and rest at the same time. So, the work during sleep time interferes with the restfulness we need. Also, it has been shown that being insufficiently warm causes us to toss and turn more - and that means less rest too.

A NIGHTCAP (no, not booze) It has been shown that we lose heat through the top of our head (actually more than we loose through the rest of our body) - even more when the hair is thinning, or you are completely bald (and more attractive, my son & I are working on a scientific study to prove that completely bald men are more attractive). So, wear a cap to bed! Prevent heat loss from the head and feet and the body needs to do less work. Now that I think about it, there is a lot of wisdom in the old idea of wearing a nightcap to bed (Old Scrooge did it). I have the socks - and I wear them regularly (unless the air temperature is above my body temperature). I've tried a few "official" night caps, but found that they usually slipped off during the night. I've settled on wearing a regular knit cap to bed, one that does not let light through. The knit cap is comfortable and I can also pull it over my eyes, adding yet another sleep aid - the sleep mask. I'm probably a sight to behold when I get into bed, but I sleep so much better these days.