If you’re one of those people who have trouble falling asleep, listen up. You might fall asleep 15 minutes earlier and wake up far less during the night if you put on a pair of socks at bedtime.
To understand why, you first need to understand the relationship between core body temperature and sleep. During daylight hours, the human body keeps at an average temperature of 37 degrees Celsius. But at night, your core body temperature reduces as much as 1.2 degrees Celsius over the course of six or seven hours of sleep.
It turns out that this gradual decrease in core body temperature is a key part of the complex neurobiological dance (神经生物学行为) of falling asleep and staying asleep. And the faster you can lower the core body temperature, the faster you will fall asleep.
One of the ways your body regulates (调节) its temperature is through blood vessels (血管) in your skin. If the brain decides the body is too hot, it will widen blood vessels, guiding warmer blood from the body’s core to the rest of the body to cool it down. If the body is too cold, the brain signals the opposite reaction, limiting the flow of blood to the surface.
According to researchers, warming the feet before going to sleep promotes vasodilation (血管舒张) by using a warm foot bath or wearing socks, which in turn lowers the body’s core temperature faster than going to sleep with cold, bare feet.
Scientists think socked feet may have a neurological effect as well. Inside the PO/AH of the brain is a type of a warm-sensitive neuron (热敏神经元), helping us fall asleep and stay asleep. And if that’s the case, warming up the feet before bedtime gives warm-sensitive neurons an extra power.
In a study, Korean researchers found that wearing a pair of special “sleeping socks” not only quickened sleep, but lengthened overall sleep time by an average of 30 minutes and cut nighttime waking period in half.
【小题1】What’s the relationship between core body temperature and sleep?| A．Once you control your core body temperature, you’ll fall asleep quickly. |
| B．The faster your core body temperature drops, the faster you’ll fall asleep. |
| C．The core body temperature doesn’t have anything to do with sleep. |
| D．The decrease of the core body temperature stops fast sleep. |
| A．Lowering the body’s temperature greatly. | B．Reducing overall sleep time. |
| C．Increasing nighttime waking period. | D．Speeding up your sleep. |
| A．People’s body temperature goes up at night. |
| B．It must be uncomfortable to wear socks in bed. |
| C．A warm foot bath might be helpful before sleeping. |
| D．Warm-sensitive neurons have no effect on sleep. |
| A．By listing numbers. | B．By providing examples. |
| C．By making comparison. | D．By giving explanations. |
