A doctor has gone viral on TikTok for making the case to wear socks to bed.
Dr. Jess Andrade, a resident doctor, took to the social media platform to explain why doing so might help people sleep faster.
Andrade told her more than one million followers that wearing socks to bed will help you fall asleep faster. Because socks warm your feet and open the blood vessels that cool the body down, this tells the brain that it’s time to sleep!
“So let’s talk about people that wear socks to bed,” she says in her clip. “So wearing socks makes your feet warm and this opens up the blood vessels that [cool] the body down. The body being cool tells the brain that it’s time for bed.”
According to the young children’s doctor, people “tend to fall asleep faster” when wearing socks to bed than when going to sleep barefoot. If you’ve been struggling to get enough sleep for any reason, you might want to try wearing socks to bed because it’s an easy thing to try that could deliver real results that help you get more sleep.
Temperature regulation is an important part of falling asleep. Wearing socks in bed increases blood flow to the feet while promoting heat loss through the skin, which helps to lower core body temperature.
In turn, this helps you fall asleep faster. The same can be said for having a hot shower and stepping into a cold bathroom, or soaking your feet in a footbath for 10 to 15 minutes before bed.
But Dr. Alex Agostini from the University of South Australia told ABC it’s not necessarily that simple.
“If you’re the type of person who hates wearing socks to bed and they’re going to feel uncomfortable, then it’s not going to work for you,” Dr. Agostini told ABC Radio.
Dr. Agostini said it’s better to tailor your sleep routine around whatever works for you, rather than what ‘someone on TikTok told you to do’.
Andrade’s TikTok has received over 15.6 million views and sparked a debate from those who strongly believe that wearing socks to bed should be a crime (at least this writer thinks so).
“I can’t sleep with socks,” one person wrote. “It’s so uncomfortable.”
“Don’t listen to her,” another added. “She’s one of them.”
“No,” a third wrote. “People who wears socks to bed are demons. Change my mind.”
Others seemed to agree with Andrade.
“Not every person in my life telling me I’m a psychopath for wearing socks to bed,” one user commented.
“Socks feel comfortable when I sleep,” a second posted.
According to Healthline, there appears to be some truth to Andrade’s TikTok. Wearing socks not only allows the blood in one’s feet to circulate (sending signals to the brain that the person should sleep), but it also supposedly prevents hot flashes, keep one’s heels moisturized, and decreases the risk of experiencing Raynaud’s disease (which causes the skin to throb and swell).
Watch the video below:
@doctorjesssI wear socks to bed so don’t come at me im not weird
