The Wall Street Journal has finally gotten around to addressing one of the great issues of our times:
A growing understanding of the importance of sleep for health and lifespan has made slumber hacks and gadgets all the buzz—including the increasingly common advice to sleep with socks.
....Authorities, from the Cleveland Clinic to the University of Florida Health have expounded on the positives of sleeping in socks.... A study published in the Journal of Physiological Anthropology found that young men fell asleep 7.5 minutes faster, slept 32 minutes longer and woke up 7.5 times less often than those not wearing socks.
First off: the Journal of Physiological Anthropology? wtf does that even mean?
But back to the subject at hand. I've always worn socks to bed for the obvious reason: they keep my feet warm. Marian thinks this is crazy even though she's always complaining that her feet are cold in bed. "Wear socks!" sez I, but she just can't do it.
Neither can I anymore. My chemo treatments have given me a case of peripheral neuropathy, mainly in my feet. This makes it uncomfortable to wear shoes and socks for long periods, and in particular it makes it uncomfortable to wear socks in bed. My choice is either cold feet or maddening neuropathy, and these days I choose the cold feet. It's a sad state of affairs.
But most of you don't have that problem. So if you have cold feet, wear socks in bed! You'll get used to it pretty quickly, especially if you wear cotton socks instead of wool.
I use an extra light-duvet specifically for the feet side of the bed.
ever try a fleece blanket over your feet?
good insulating properties and they're really light, so maybe better for neuropathy?
Make $280 per hour. Getting a job is not easy. In any case, you have access to a wealth of resources to help you with your work style. Become motivated to promote hundreds of jobs through job boards and vx30 career websites.
Take a look at this................................ https://paymoney39.blogspot.com/
Yeah, exactly. We shift between using a body pillow or the winter duvet, depending upon time of year.
I grew up with a cat and a tv pillow to warm my feet there ^-^
I'm no anthropologist, but most sub-fields exist for at least historical reasons (ie they're not the made-up wingnut parodies that so often get thrown out there). Here I could easily be wrong, but I'm surmising provisionally that it's a branch of biological anthropology especially interested in adaptations to environments, with variation in individual adaptability an important element (at least in Japan), and less interested in population-level patterns.
My source is this programmatic overview: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9999635/
Monickers for forks and offshoots can be obscure for us outsiders because they can originate in technical arguments within fields, or because there's no obvious simple label for what they're interested in.
"My choice is either cold feet or maddening neuropathy,..."
Hmmm...Kevin, there's a new invention just came on the market recently. It's called a "heating pad." It's so new it might not have reached your neighborhood yet, but Google is your friend. Google "heating pad" and you'll probably find several references to link to.
Heating pads are actually discouraged for people with peripheral neuropathy. The risk of burns is higher for them, since they are less likely to feel overheated in time.
The old-fashioned practice of using a water bottle briefly to warm up the bed prior to getting in is a safer option.
My spouse taught me to cut the elastic around the open end of my bedtime socks to reduce constriction and the inflammation it causes.
You can just buy loose socks?
My wife knits constantly and simply makes socks that fit perfectly for sleeping.
Kevin, this is available at Amazon:
Bwarm Premium Multi-Zone Electric Heated Mattress Pad King Size, 78" x 80", Dual Controllers, 9 Heat Settings, 1-12 Hours Auto Off, Individual Body and Feet Settings, Machine Washable
It's not cheap, $189.99, but bet it will help you.
'A study published in the Journal of Physiological Anthropology...', which was a study based on six study subjects. The increased sleep time was 32.0 ± 29.9 minutes. Significant but marginally so.
I was going to post something but I got cold feet.
FTW
I've had some benefit from heated mattress pads. The better ones have more coils at the foot, or are adjustable.
I solved the cold feet problem years ago by simply ADDING ANOTHER BLANKET. If you, or any part of your body, is cold in bed you do not have enough blankets. It is as simple as that!
The extra weight increases the foot pain of neuropathy for me.
Weight and thermal properties are only vaguely associated. A proper down or artificial down cover will weigh less and be far warmer than a batting or foam filled pillow.
The additional blanket doesn't need to be over your feet to be effective. When the body overall is not warm enough, the body pulls its blood away from the feet to protect the vital organs in the torso, so the feet feel cold while the rest of the body does not. Insulating the torso makes enough heat available for the feet.
what about us who suffer from hot feet in bed?
I don't know about hot feet in particular, but wearing socks apparently helps with thermoregulation in general, whether you tend to be either too hot or too cold. My wife tends to experience periods when she feels too hot in the middle of the night, and wearing socks definitely helps her.
That's my problem too. I often wind up yanking the sheet and blanket so my feet stick out and can cool down.
Yep. This is why I like a duvet -- no sheet to mess with.
Movies demonstrate the solution of the past to the cold feet of aging sleepers, usually men. The hot water bottle is often a punchline in these old movies.
Here in northern New England, the saying is Cold feet?
Wear a hat!
That works only if you have a head.
Many years ago I stayed at an old fashioned inn in Darjeeling and they placed hot water bottles at the bottom of the bed. Very cozy.
These days with a similar mild neuropathy, I also can’t tolerate socks at night, i have used a heating pad to warm up the bed and my feet. During the night I turn it down or off depending how cold it is. I’ve seen programmable heating pads made expressly for this purpose.
My basic heating pad turns itself off after ten or fifteen minutes. I guess that would work for feet in bed though, maybe even just right.
If your feet are cold, wear socks. Nobel territory for sure.
1) I used to wear socks and stopped because of my problems with onychomycosis (e.g., toenail fungus) (it isn't a cure, but it reduces the likelihood of further spread).
2) I find that rice bags & salt bags are cheap foot heating solutions: stick 'em in the microwave for a minute or two before bed, and they'll warm up your feet as you are falling asleep.
-MMM
Dealing with similar fungal issues, but with opposite experience-- uncovered feet (meaning nails, of course) allow it to spread, covered feet don't seem to. The culprit is contact with sheets, I think, which is probably more likely for a stomach sleeper.
I never found that socks worked. My feet would still be cold inside the socks.
What did work was a small blanket *under* the sheet, wrapped around my feet. Give that a try if socks won't work any longer for you.
Same here! (Oddly enough.) I've had cold feet -- I mean, corpse in winter cold -- for as long as I can remember. Wool socks all winter long, but in bed, I need to shuck them off. So I've been using your solution: a fluffy little fleece blanket wrapped around my bare feet at night. This allows me to keep my feet close together for added warmth, too. Also, stuff piled up on the foot section of the bed: jackets, extra pillows, whatever.
In the summer, the feet get way too hot in shoes, so sandals whenever possible are a must. In bed, they can hang out from under the sheet.
And no, I'm not yet diabetic. When that happens, I imagine I can kiss my feet goodbye.
Flannel sheets guys! It really works, plus a nice down quilt with duvet cover. This is my winter bedding routine then regular sheets once nighttime temps are in the high 40s/50s or more.
Journal of Physiological Anthropology
It explores the niche utility of the unattractive. They must be good for something!
Odd that so many of us have this same issue. I have a small, cheap electric blanket that covers just the bottom of the bed.
I'd buy a pricier one though if bought another, the cheap one heats unevenly and sometimes erratically.
and an added bonus, according to numerous sites on the internet, "According to a study conducted at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, working with 13 heterosexual couples aged 19 to 49, researchers found that when couples were given socks, about 80% were able to achieve orgasm, compared with 50% when they lacked the socks."
Does this have anything to do with "knocked your socks off"?
7.5 times less…
That construct alone would have me discount the study out of hand…
I am another sufferer from PN. Caused by nerve damage during back surgery. That was almost 30 years ago. I can tolerate the pain from PN in bed but as I age the PN is creeping up my legs and is now in my butt as well as my feet. I had the same butt pain post op but it went away after a year or so.
Now with age and reduced activity, my feet are cold even wearing shoes. I found heated slippers on Google. I will give them a try.
Nobody ever talks about hot water bottles leaking.
This study was clearly funded by the "Big Sock" industry.
The thing that fascinates me about this story is just how vehement some people are in their hatred of sock wearing in bed. What is that? I can totally understand not wanting to wear socks yourself, but the language some of the people use about others: crazy, psychopathic, "can't be trusted." Can you think of any other benign personal preference that is practically invisible to others (those sock-covered feet are hidden inside of a bed!) that gets talked about in similar language?
The thing that is even more interesting is that the sock-wearers don't use similar language for those who abstain. They may say they are missing out, but certainly not accuse them of being psychopaths. Is this just some sort of deeply ingrained form of misogyny? We do associate women with being more cold at night, so needing socks at night might subconsciously code as feminine. Or does it suggest frailty and old age, and sock haters are just reacting against thoughts of their own mortality?
I do not wear socks in bed, but I certainly wouldn't judge anybody who does. I'm guessing that those who have the attitude you describe see sock-wearing in bed as somehow unclean.
For what it's worth, I would think that wearing socks in bed that have been worn all day and sweated in would be pretty gross, but fresh socks would be fine.
I don't think it was suggested, but maybe you could head back to socks with the right material, possibly silk or alpaca, that fitted loosely. With their light weight, wicking properties alongside thermoregulation you might find the right fit.
I have the Laney family hot feet. They always stick out from under the blanket.
Also, you could always read the About page (or is that too close to reading the manual?):
Journal of Physiological Anthropology (JPA) is an open access, peer-reviewed journal that publishes research on the physiological functions of modern mankind, with an emphasis on the physical and bio-cultural effects on human adaptability to the current environment.
The objective of JPA is to evaluate physiological adaptations to modern living environments, and to publish research from different scientific fields concerned with environmental impact on human life.
Topic areas include, but are not limited to:
environmental physiology
bio-cultural environment
living environment
epigenetic adaptation
development and growth
age and sex differences
nutrition and morphology
physical fitness and health
But, but... I *like* wool socks...
Try wearing something on your head: nightcap, knit cap, whatever is comfortable. You’d be amazed how much heat radiates off your head that, if conserved, goes to your extremities, especially your feet.
This can’t be right - I started regularly wearing socks to bed in September of 2021, and while over that period I generally have been falling asleep more quickly than I previously did, my number of sleep-interruptions per night are way up and my total hours of sleep are way down.
The fact that my kid was born in September of 2021 is surely just a coincidence.