What you Should and Shouldn’t Wear to Bed

Adequate sleep is a crucial part of a healthy lifestyle. Sleep deprivation has been connected to a variety of medical problems, including type 2 diabetes, depression, weight gain, heart attacks, high blood pressure, and strokes. For this reason, it’s crucial that you practice good sleep hygiene.

Sleep hygiene refers to the habits that contribute to a good night’s sleep. This means things like restricting the amount of light, keeping the temperature cool and comfortable, and wearing the right clothes. Yes, that’s right, what you wear to bed affects how well you’re able to fall asleep and stay asleep.

Let’s explore some bedtime clothing options to determine whether they are suitable or ill-suited to a good night’s sleep.

Suitable Bed Attire

• Sleeping in the Buff

Sleeping in the nude is good for your health. This is because sleeping without any clothes helps to lower your overall body temperature. Your bedroom’s temperature a crucial factor in achieving quality sleep. Ideally, your bedroom temperature should be between 60 and 67 degrees Fahrenheit. When you sleep naked, your body is better able to keep its internal temperature low, thus ensuring you sleep well.

• Clean Clothes

Wearing clothes with a lot of sweat and skin buildup can affect your health as well as the quality of your sleep. When you wear the same clothes over and over again, your bodily oils will start to accumulate inside the fabric. As a result, you may get acne on your back and shoulders. You could also experience dermatitis, an inflammation of the skin that makes it red, itchy, and swollen. As a result, this may keep you from getting comfortable and enjoying a restful sleep.

• Breathable Pyjamas

If you’re going to wear clothes to bed, they should be not only clean but also breathable and loose.

Lightweight cotton is an ideal material for sleepwear if you live in a warm climate. The fabric is breathable, soft to the touch, and keeps cool against your skin. Additionally, the material has some stretch for easy movement.

Flannel pajamas are breathable and warm, making them ideal for colder climates. They are also soothing to the touch, creating a cozy, relaxed feeling.

Silk is an excellent option for pajamas because it works in both cool and warm climates. It’s capable of keeping you warm when you’re cold and cool when you’re hot. However, it is slippery, which could impede your sleep.

Finally, bamboo fabric acts as a natural moisture-wicker, drawing water away from your skin and helping your body to regulate its temperature. Therefore, pajamas made of bamboo fabric will help you remain comfortable so you can get a good night’s sleep.

• Eye Mask

To attain a good night’s sleep, it’s important that you block out excessive light. One way to make sure you have suitable darkness is by wearing an eye mask. Ideally, your eye mask should be soft, breathable, and conform easily to your face, so all unwanted light is kept out. You might also want to consider using a weighted eye mask. Weighted eye masks put pressure on your eyes, which studies have shown can help you relax.

• Lightweight Socks

If your extremities are colder than the rest of your body, you will have a hard time thermoregulating. This will result in difficulty falling and staying asleep. In fact, a study published in the journal Nature discovered that if you wear the right socks to bed, you can reduce the time it takes to fall asleep by 15 minutes. However, you can’t just wear any socks. If you wear thick and insulating socks, your feet are likely to become too warm. As a result, you will have trouble falling asleep. You should also avoid compression socks. The best socks for sleeping are ones that are made with natural and breathable materials such as cotton. Furthermore, you should make sure to use a clean pair of socks to avoid being exposed to old dirt and bacteria.

• Earplugs

Excessive noise can be as intrusive to sleep as excessive light. Therefore you might consider using earplugs to block out noise and to ensure you don’t get woken prematurely by sudden sounds. The best earplugs for sleep are ones made of foam or silicone. Foam earplugs will fit snugly into your ear canal and then expand, blocking sound. Silicone earplugs sit in the ear canal without going too deep, making them less intrusive and reusable.

Improper Attire for Sleep

• Underwear

Wearing underwear to bed may seem hygienic, but it’s actually bad for your health and the quality of your sleep. Tight underwear, especially, can breed bacteria. This can cause discomfort, keeping you from achieving a good night’s rest, and led to problems like yeast infections.

If you absolutely cannot sleep without underwear on, then you should opt for loose underwear like cotton shorts. You should also make sure to avoid anything made of nylon, as this will prevent your skin from breathing, causing irritation and providing a breeding ground for bacteria.

• A Bra

Contrary to popular belief, wearing a bra to bed will not help maintain your breast’s shape. In fact, wearing a bra to bed may even prevent breasts from achieving their natural lift. Furthermore, like underwear, bras are another type of clothing that can irritate your skin. They can also inhibit your ability to breathe during the night. If you’re unable to breathe properly, you may wake up during the night, resulting in a poor night’s rest.

• Tight Fitting Pyjamas

It’s important that you wear loose clothing to bed to ensure you have easy movement and comfort. Tight clothing, especially tight waistbands, can have a negative effect on your sleep. Studies have shown that tight clothing suppresses melatonin levels. You need a high level of melatonin in order to achieve proper sleep. Therefore a lower level of melatonin will make it harder for you to fall asleep and stay asleep.

Furthermore, tight clothing is bad for your health. The material may pinch your nerves causing painful tingling and numbness. Additionally, tight clothing may prevent products from flowing through your lymph nodes, potentially causing issues with your immune system.

Sleep deprivation is dangerous to your physical and mental health. Therefore, it’s crucial that you practice good sleep hygiene. Part of good sleep hygiene involves ensuring that you fall asleep in an environment that is dark and cool. This is because light and temperature can prevent you from falling and staying asleep. Therefore, in addition to making sure you have blinds or curtains on your window you also need to have the thermostat set between 60 and 67 degrees Fahrenheit, and you need to choose the appropriate clothing to wear to bed. This clothing must help regulate your body temperature, so you aren’t too cold or too warm. It should also allow for a range of movement. In doing so, you will ensure that you not only sleep well but also that you are healthy.