​A Foot Outside the Comforter?

Have you ever woken up with one foot sticking out of the duvet cover? “It could help you both sleep better and fall asleep faster,” according to The Cut’s “Science of Us” section, reporting on an interview with Natalie Dautovich, spokesperson of the National Sleep Foundation and professor of psychology at the University of Alabama.

Temperature is a key element in sleep

Is it sometimes too hot, sometimes too cold in your bed, leaving you struggling to find the ideal temperature? For good quality sleep, it is important to sleep at the right temperature. Indeed, if you experience excessive temperature variations during your sleep, your body will not rest efficiently and therefore recover less. You may wake up with the feeling that you have had a bad night, still feeling tired in the morning.

According to Professor Dautovich, when it comes to sleep, it's all about the temperature. Just before you fall asleep, the temperature of the human body drops to its coolest state. The cool condition of the body contributes significantly to the transition to a sleeping state.

The foot outside the cover and its thermoregulatory virtues

It is everyone's first instinct when we are too hot under the duvet: stick out a leg or a foot. The feet are indeed essential members in the process of regulating body temperature. The extremities - head, hands, and feet - are the parts of the body where heat escapes most easily. The feet have the additional quality, along with the hands, of being hairless, and are endowed with many blood vessels, both of which serve to efficiently dissipate heat from the body.

Just before falling asleep, the body temperature drops, promoting the secretion of melatonin, the sleep hormone. If you are snuggled under a nice warm quilt, sticking your foot out of the quilt helps speed up the natural process of falling asleep. In addition, it is easier to fall asleep with one part of your body warm and the other a little cooler.

To sleep well throughout the night, you also need to be at the right temperature. Having the big toe or the entire foot protruding from the blanket should therefore increase your chances of both falling asleep and sleeping well. According to Professor Dautovich, "I think it's probably a way for our bodies to cool down when we're too hot to sleep."

If you want to maximize your chances of falling asleep easily and sleeping well through the night, whether you sleep on your back or on your stomach, with your head on the pillow or under it, try the foot outside the comforter experiment.

Nowadays most people are using a year-round comforter, but if you are very sensitive to the temperature, you may want to consider coordinating your comforter to the season, using a lighter comforter for the summer and a heavier comforter for the winter.

Since buying a comforter can be a difficult choice, we provide a special guide on our website.

Cooling bedding might help your sleep

If you often feel too warm in your bed, sweat-wicking sheets, mattress pad and pillows may increase the pleasure of your sleep. Anti-perspiration bedding is made from special fibers and through a special weaving process. These products have micro grooves that capture and drain moisture to facilitate its evaporation.

If you have questions about choosing your bedding, feel free to reach out to us and one of our friendly customer service representatives will assist you.

Photo Credit: Photo by Burst from Pexels