You Could Get A Better Kip By Sleeping Naked, Study Finds

If you're not getting decent shut-eye, then it could be time to ditch those jim jams and get out of the right side of the bed - naked.

Sleep site The Dozy Owl conducted a month-long study with 2,680 volunteers from across the globe, each of which was asked to keep all sleep conditions the same except from their night clobber.

Participants donned the likes of t-shirts, kimono robes, pyjamas and onesies and recorded their rapid eye movement (REM) sleep - the phase during which we dream, which is understood to benefit memory function and mood.

But of all the volunteers, it was the ones wearing nothing at all that got the most of this precious phase of sleep.

Pexels/Dziana Hasanbekava

REM sleep should make up about 23 percent of your snooze time, and those in bedtime birthday suits recorded an average of 26.5 percent - which I think you will agree is pretty amazzzzzzzzzing.

The t-shirt and short combo was a close second with 26 percent, while those in underpants recorded 25.5 percent.

At the other end of the scale, nightshirts, bathrobes and pyjamas got the least REM sleep, with 20, 19 and 17.5 percent respectively.

The general trend you're probably noticing here is that the less garms you wear in bed, the more REM sleep you're likely to get.

This shouldn't come as too much of a surprise, as your body temperature needs to drop to allow you to get off.

Pixabay

Russell Foster, professor of circadian neuroscience at the University of Oxford, told the Daily Mail: "The advantage of sleeping naked is it's easier for the body to cool and maintain the lower temperature the brain wants to achieve.

"If you're wearing lots of bedclothes it's going to be more difficult to regulate your temperature, so wear the least you can get away with."

Nice little rule of thumb that isn't it; how much can one get away with in a hostel, for example?

Dr Chris Idzikowski, director of the Edinburgh Sleep Centre, added: "Your core temperature is at its highest at 11pm and its lowest at 4am.

"If anything prevents that decline in temperature, the brain will wake itself up to see what's going on, meaning you'll struggle to get to sleep or you'll have disturbed sleep."

So why not see how little you can get away with tonight?

Topics: Interesting, Sleep, Community

Jake Massey

Jake Massey is a journalist at LADbible. He graduated from Newcastle University, where he learnt a bit about media and a lot about living without heating. After spending a few years in Australia and New Zealand, Jake secured a role at an obscure radio station in Norwich, inadvertently becoming a real-life Alan Partridge in the process. From there, Jake became a reporter at the Eastern Daily Press. Jake enjoys playing football, listening to music and writing about himself in the third person.

@jakesmassey