How do you sleep? Do you prefer to be all decked out in peejays, shrouded in a giant t-shirt and nothing else, or naked other than your underwear and socks? Or, maybe you are like 12 percent of adults in the US who feel most comfortable sleeping in the nude.
If you're part of the latter group and strip down before climbing under the covers, there could be hidden benefits to your preference to sleep totally naked. Check out what science has to say about the benefits of sleeping in the nude.
1. Fall Asleep Faster and Sleep Better
Your core body temperature and how comfortable you feel have a lot to do with how quickly you fall asleep. Plus, experts suggest keeping the room where you sleep around 60 to 67 degrees for the best sleep quality. If you are too hot, it interferes with REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, which helps to keep your brain regenerating itself and refreshed and your body healthy. If you're slipping into bed in added layers of clothing you don't necessarily need, you could be keeping your body too warm to fall asleep and stay asleep through the night so you get all those excellent advantages.
2. Keep the Vagina Healthier
The vagina is already home to yeast cells, as well as other forms of bacteria that are necessary. However, when yeast grows too much, it generates a problem. Yeast loves warm and moist places, and tight-fitting panties can encourage yeast to grow. If you have frequent issues with vaginal yeast infections as a female, it is best to let the vaginal area get some air. At night when you go to bed, it can be the perfect opportunity to ditch the panties.
3. Give Your Self-Esteem a Boost
If you are feeling a bit out of touch with your body or a little low on self-esteem, sleeping nude could help. A study published in the Journal of Happiness Studies in 2017 found that time spent in the buff helped participants feel better about their bodies and have higher levels of self-esteem.
4. Sleep Happier with Your Partner
Sex is a great happiness inducer between two people in a relationship, but sleeping skin-to-skin could be quite good for feeling intimate and happy as well. Research has established that direct skin-to-skin contact between two adults triggers the body to produce oxytocin. What's oxytocin? Scientifically, it is a hypothalamic nonapeptide, but this little hormone is also referred to as the "cuddle hormone" or "love hormone." Oxytocin is linked to well-being and stress-relief, and it is generally good for your body and your mind.
5. Boost Male Fertility
For guys who normally wear tight-fitting underwear throughout the day, they may have a good reason to take it all off before they go to bed, especially if they care about their sperm counts. Tight-fitting underwear has been linked to low sperm count. Peeling off those tighty-whities before hitting the hay can keep the testicles at a lower temperature and less constricted so they get a break and sperm can populate freely.
There you have it—five new excuses to sleep in your birthday suit just in case you were starting to think you are an oddball because of your nude-sleeping preference. Go ahead and leave the pajamas in the drawer, ditch the undergarments, and shimmy your nude self into bed. You may be doing both your body and your mind a favor by following a strip-down routine before you go to sleep at night.