Wearing socks to bed can improve the quality of your sleep, according to sleep medicine physician Keisha Sullivan of Kaiser Permanente in Largo, Maryland.
Wearing socks to bed helps cool the body’s core temperature, which helps prepare your body for sleep and helps support a person’s natural circadian rhythm.
“Those warm extremities cause your blood vessels to what we call vasodilate, or open up, releasing heat,” Sullivan said. “It’s when the heat is released that our core body temperature decreases.”
Sleep doctors say decreasing the core body temperature promotes better sleep by helping a person fall asleep faster — and stay asleep longer.
“Whether you wear socks or gloves, or take a hot bath or shower before bed, or have a warm drink, all of those things help promote that release of heat from the body, which ultimately decreases your body temperature,” Sullivan said.
Often, a person will feel warm or hot while climbing into bed but feel cold when they wake up.
“Two to three hours prior to your normal waking time is when your core body temperature is the lowest,” Sullivan said.
In addition to expending heat before bedtime, “We recommend you sleep in a cool, dark, quiet place — all those things help promote better sleep,” Sullivan said.
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