Yahoo LifestyleSleep Naked To Beat Diabetes, Sleep Better and Suffer Fewer Infections
We've already been told that sleeping naked leads to a better sex life (hardly rocket science), but could it also beat diabetes, yeast infections and broken sleep?
As we head into winter, the last thing you might want to do is divest yourself of your snuggly fleece jim jams.
But according to science, we could all be much happier and healthier sleeping in the buff.
Sleep is increasingly being understood as one of the most vital things we need for good health, helping our bodies control our moods, hormones, weight and immunity. So it stands to reason that getting good quality 40 winks is essential. And anywhere between seven and nine hours is what you should be aiming for.
But while no one wants to be cold at night, snuggling in with an electric blanket and the heating on full blast might actually give you worse shut eye.
That's because your body is supposed to drop in temperature at night, as a signal to your brain that it's sleep time. And the only thing that should be toasty warm are your hands and feet.
Diabetes And Fat Burning
The main health benefit of sleeping nude is that it helps your body regulate its temperature better, allowing the brain to give and receive the right signals to keep deep and light sleep cycles regular to ensure our bodies can achieve everything they need to rejuvinate overnight.
Sleeping in a cool room was also linked the the activation of 'brown fat', which unlike regular fat, appears to be used by the body to keep warm - burning calories as it does so.
In a study published in the journal Diabetes, US researchers looked into bedroom temperatures and fat burning in adults.
They measured the calorie expenditure and insulin sensitivity (how much insulin the body uses to keep blood sugar levels stable) for five healthy young men who slept in climate-controlled bedrooms over four months.
The men slept at 24°C for the first month, then 19°C, followed by a return to 24°C and for the last month the termperature was raised to 27°C.
The most striking result was that when the men slept at 19°C, the men had almost doubled their volumes of brown fat.
“Brown fat can produce 300 times more heat than any other body organ, meaning if you can keep it activated for a prolonged amount of time you’d be less likely to lay down excess energy,” explains Michael Symonds, professor of developmental physiology at the University of Nottingham.
“So anything you can do to try to activate it, such as lowering the thermostat and sleeping in the cold, may be of benefit.”
Or less dramatically, perhaps it's a case of simply shedding our pyjamas (though don't let it go too cold or you won't get to sleep in the first place!).
Other Benefits
Sleeping in the buff has been linked to happier relationships and more sex - for obvious reasons - as well as lower blood pressure, because it increases the oxytocin (the 'cuddle' hormone) in the bloodstream.
Plus women prone to yeast infections should especially consider losing the nightwear, because by allowing the air to circulate and getting rid of any man-made or constricting fabrics, they can reduce their chances of giving the thrush and other conditions the perfect environment to grow in.
We just have to find a way of getting out of bed on winters morning without our snuggly pyjamas to make it a little more bearable...
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