Feet And Sleep

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Is there a connection between feet and sleep quality? Does wearing socks to bed make it easier to sleep? Maybe so.

Swiss researchers reported in 1999 that blood vessel dilation of the hands and feet predicts how quickly we fall asleep. The expansion of blood vessels (known as vasodilation) in the hands and feet increases the amount of heat loss. This heat loss causes heat to redistribute throughout body and is believed to create changes that prepare people for sleep.

In the experiment, researchers examined the relationships between hand and feet temperature, core body temperature, heart rate, hormone levels and the time it took subjects to fall asleep. They found that that the more dilated hand and feet blood vessels were, the quicker the subjects fell asleep.

Perhaps heating the feet (or hands) gives the brain a signal to sleep. The researchers suggest that this behavior may have motivated an old sleep strategy of placing a hot water bottle near the feet under the blankets.

This research may suggest reasons why some people have trouble falling asleep. Perhaps some sleep disorders are related to problems with vasodilation. Socks, wheat packs or a hot water bottle could trigger the heat loss process and help these people fall asleep.