At this time of the year, the temperatures around us are dropping well into the negatives on the thermometer.
Once again, the fight against the cold is on, and the struggle to keep ourselves warm is something we are familiarizing ourselves with once again.
It is important to keep ourselves warm this season too – with climate change making the weather even more extreme than before, it is becoming incredibly easy to freeze ourselves to death should we miss even a single day of heating.
With such low temperatures threatening to frost over our windows and doors, the easiest solution is to – of course – turn on the heater and turn up the internal thermometer.
Unfortunately, this can get incredibly expensive very quickly, which isn’t a great thing to deal with.
This is especially so since winter and snowfall are going to last many places at least a month or more, on top of the weather getting progressively worse.
Some of us may find ourselves just unable to support the heating bill beyond a certain point!
The better long-term solution, therefore, is obviously to turn to alternate ways to keeping ourselves warm.
This is the most realistic solution to utilise since warming ourselves directly with, say, constant hot baths and higher heating temperatures aren’t practical.
Instead, look towards insulating one’s house better so it traps more heat (and thus making the heating system within the house more efficient) and keeps out the cold better.
You can also look towards layering up to stay warm, even inside the house. Don’t be afraid to put on another layer to retain all that body heat!
Of course, this then raises the question – should you be wearing socks into bed then?
There are plenty of people that are disgusted with the idea, and others who just don’t like wearing them to sleep, but it is certainly an option you should consider.
The immediate benefit is obviously the fact that it will help keep you warm in bed, since it means an extra layer retaining heat and covering what would otherwise be exposed skin.
There is, however, a side-effect of keeping your feet warm – according to science, this actually helps you sleep better as well.
Research has proven that wearing socks to sleep not only improves the quality of sleep, but also helps us fall asleep as fast as 15 minutes sooner than usual.
This is on top of other unexpected benefits wearing socks to bed provides, such as reducing the number of hot flashes you experience throughout the night, and the occurrence of dry feet.
As it turns out, warmth causes your blood vessels to dilate, which sends to your brain signals that it is time to sleep.
As this heat spreads throughout the rest of your body, the effect snowballs, making it a lot easier to crash in bed.
Certain cultures have historically already noted this fact, such as Chinese medicine! Which means that there already is a historical precedent for this to work.
So stay warm, and help yourself to a better night’s sleep sooner!
