Sleeping naked: What you should know
If you know someone who prefers to sleep naked then that person may be on to something. There are benefits to sleeping without any clothing on apart from getting intimate with your significant other.
Here are the top 5 benefits that may have eluded your attention.
Benefit #1– It Keeps Your Body Cool
Wait—isn’t this obvious? No clothes simply mean you feel cooler at night. But is there any benefit to it all? Allow me to explain the benefits.
First off, your body clock, aka your circadian rhythm, uses your body temperature as one of the signals for sleeping. When your body is cooler and when the room temperature drops anywhere from 60° to 67° F then your circadian rhythm switches to sleep mode.
You fall asleep faster increases when you sleep without clothes and underwear. It takes an average of 7 minutes for anyone to fall asleep. Experts say that if the body temperature goes down even by just one degree, you tend to sleep faster and stay asleep in bed.
Simply put, sleeping naked makes you sleep faster and the quality of your sleep increases. You will wake up refreshed and ready to go first thing in the morning. Remember to keep the temperature in your bedroom within the 60 to 70 degree range.
If your body feels too warm while you were sleeping you tend to be more alert and slightly awake while in bed. It is like you’re sleeping lightly. However, if the temperature goes down, your body will feel a lot drowsier and you tend to sleep better.
If it is too warm or too cold, it will have an effect on your rapid eye movement sleep or REM sleep. Remember that REM sleep is the state of sleep when your brain enters its healing phase, which refreshes both your brain and body.
When you sleep naked, your chances of getting to the REM state are much better since your body is better able to regulate its temperature.
Benefit #2– Reduces Stress and Anxiety
Sleeping naked improves the quality of your sleep and thus helps to reduce anxiety and stress. One study suggests that stress less levels, anxiety, and depression is linked to poor quality sleep.
These conditions can also increase your risk of insomnia. One way to reduce that risk is to get better quality sleep, which is why when you sleep without your clothes you reduce stress and anxiety over time.
Moving along the lines of reduced stress and anxiety, Vicki Culpin, Organisational Behaviour professor at Ashridge Executive Education says that sleeping without any clothing on can help you when it comes to career development.
In her book “The Business of Sleep: How sleeping can transform your career” she explains how getting quality sleep and sleeping naked can increase the amount of happiness and health you experience. This effect then cascades into your career and the other aspects of your life.
Benefit #3– Keeps Skin Healthy
Do your wounds and other skin conditions take longer to heal? One study suggests that this could be due to poor sleep quality. Sleeping naked improves the quality of your sleep, which helps your skin heal a lot faster.
In that study, test participants were placed into three different groups. One group was allowed to get adequate amounts of sleep, the other had less sleep, and the final group also had less sleep but was given nutritional supplements.
The results of this study suggest that getting adequate amounts of and more quality sleep allows you to heal and recover a lot faster. Sleeping without any clothes on also facilitates this as well.
But what about the group that had the nutritional boost? The results of this study show that the extra nutrition that these women got did not actually account for much. The wounds they had on their skin and other skin damage didn’t heal faster.
Speaking of skin health, when women sleep naked they are also providing care for their skin in the vaginal area. Sleeping without any underwear reduces the chance of getting yeast infections.
Remember that yeast is a type of fungi. And fungus likes to grow in moist and warm environments, such as tight fitting and sweaty underwear. When you sleep naked, you keep your nether regions dry for hours.
But what about the men, don’t they get anything out of this as well? They in fact benefit from sleeping naked as well. One study found that this cooler and loose way of sleeping can help boost male fertility.
Benefit #4– Prevents Weight Gain
Sleeping naked also helps you burn calories and lose weight. Researchers from St. Luke’s International Hospital in Tokyo, Japan observed 21,000 test subjects. The experiment lasted for a total of three years.
The data that they have gathered suggest that there is a link between weight gain and being sleep deprived. The study suggests that if you sleep five hours or less at night, you are more likely to gain weight. You sleep longer and much better when you sleep naked.
On the same vein, according to another study this time by the UK National Institutes of Health, your body’s metabolism tends to speed up when you sleep with a lower body temperature.
When the metabolism increases while you sleep, the body produces more brown fat. Brown fatty tissues lend to increases in calorie burns. In short, you burn calories while you snooze at night and also during the day time as you go to work and do other stuff.
Benefit #5– Reduces Your Risk for Diabetes, Heart Disease, and Other Medical Conditions
Researchers from the State University of New York and the University of Warwick have discovered a link between diseases and the duration and quality of people’s sleep. Improving the quality of your sleep helps your body prevent disease.
These researchers used data on test subjects measuring their sleep patterns and health conditions for a period of six years. The data that they have gathered suggests that people who sleep six hours or less at night are at a higher risk to develop heart problems, stroke, and diabetes.
Sleeping naked might be a novel idea for some. However, the health benefits that we mentioned above are backed by actual science. You might want to try and get comfy sleeping without any underwear on at night.
