“Cold feet” is generally a phrase with a negative connotation – reserved for fickle fiances.
But not when it comes to another nuptial commitment we all have:
Our matrimony with our mattresses.
“Sign of a perfect marriage: I literally can’t tell where you end and I begin. Neither can anyone else!”
Because our feet, say scientists, are pertinent parts of our bodies for thermoregulation during dreamtime.
And for your best rest, they say: the more naked the better. No socks. No blanket. Just the AC’s breeze running betwixt your toes like a smelly Fabio commercial. Which is actually all (very unwelcome) news to me. I had no idea science wanted me to leave my foot fingers exposed so that the nocturnal monster waiting under my bed could gnaw them off. But they do. Because while I understand that we need nippier night temps to sleep well (which you can manage with your thermostat), there was something I didn’t factor into that before: that we have two zones to appease to sleep well (and to stay in snooze mode, for that matter). And those are our core temp and our shell temp. While the former’s regulated by the brain, the latter’s managed by external heat levels. So, it doesn’t matter if you make your wall thermometer drop like it’s opposite of hot for an hour or two before absconding to your bedchamber. I mean, that might be good for allowing you to fall asleep – but you might not stay asleep if you’re someone who likes roasting under a smotheringly massive cavalcade of covers once you’re there. Or laying on a heating pad set to full blast (Hi.) Or, say the experts, if your flippers are blistering hot under those garments that you refuse to remove when you’re in bed. For example, there was a study conducted by neuroscientist Dr. Eus van Someren (where he stuck subjects in sorcery suits that altered hotness levels as they rested). And, indeed, the results seemed to confirm it: subtle temp tweaks equal significant sleep quality mods.
While a dip in core temperature before bedtime flips on your brain and body’s “time for bed” switches and helps you fall asleep, Someren’s research shows that keeping your skin temperature “perfectly comfortable” is important when it comes to maintaining deep, restful slumber.
Okay… But why deprive the extremity my toe tentacles live on?
Because while you did a great job on prepping your brain’s temp for bed by turning your atmosphere more arctic that usual (which for me means anything under 80 during winter – though the pros suggest 60 to 70), it’s not enough. As the study showed, it can’t satisfy that maintenance heat level you need to manage later while you’re actually sleeping. Your feet’s heat, on the other hand, can. That is, if you lay off swaddling them with socks. And that’s because of the specializd blood vessels in your ambulatory pedals. What they do is help manage loss of heat. We’ve actually got them in both our hands and feet. They’re called arteriovenous anastomoses (which I don’t expect any of us to remember, but put it there for anyone looking to bring up a fiver dollar term at the dinner table tonight). Thus, the existence of these structures (coupled up with the fact that we’re bald on our palms and soles) means that your fleshy root system’s ideal for dissipating heat from your body.
So, if you’re having less than stellar rests, maybe it’s ’cause your hooves are hot.
And maybe you should strip ’em down so you can rise refreshed tomorrow.
(Assuming the night creatures haven’t dined on your tarsals by sunrise.)