Are you a pyjama-lover or do you sleep in your birthday suit? You might be wondering: Is sleeping naked better for your health?
Sleeping nude isn’t for everybody - in fact, only 22% of Brits sleep totally naked, with most choosing to sleep in PJs or soft t-shirts. It’s not well-known, but sleeping naked comes with a host of benefits for your body and mind, including better sleep quality and improvement to your mental, physical, and sexual health. After reading the below, we’re pretty certain you’ll be stripping down completely before you jump into bed tonight.
1. It can help improve your sleep quality
Almost 2 in 3 people in the UK struggle with sleep if they’re overheated - so ensuring your body is kept at a cool temperature is key, especially during the summer months.
The best bedroom temperature for sleep is around 18.3 degrees Celsius, but that’s harder to control in the summer months. NHS doctor, Frankie Jackson-Spence recommends, “swapping your bedding to a lighter summer duvet, opening a window, using a fan to circulate some cold air, or even sleeping naked, are all practical tips to help improve the quality of your shut-eye”.
Is it better to sleep naked? The less clothing you wear throughout summer nights, the easier it is for your body to keep cool and regulate temperature all through the night. You’ll get more deep sleep, which will have anti-ageing benefits, help your mental health, and keep your stress level down.
Cool tip: To keep things breezy in your sleep environment, consider trying eco-friendly cooling bed sheets, like eucalyptus sheets, and switching to an airy, cooling duvet that’s made for summer sleeping. Eucalyptus Silk is super soft, wrinkle-resistant, and wicks away moisture - so you’ll want every inch of your (naked) skin touching it.
2. It can help you nod off sooner
Does it feel as if you toss and turn for a long time before finally falling asleep at night? If so, you could maximize the hours of sleep you get each night by finding ways to fall asleep sooner. That’s one of the best benefits of sleeping naked.
There are simple ways to help you get to sleep throughout the year, such as installing blackout curtains, adding luxurious sheet sets, playing white noise or investing in a weighted blanket. You can also experiment with bedding, such as trying out bamboo sheets, percale sheets, or cooling sheets that will make you more comfortable. One natural tip for falling asleep quicker is to sleep in the nude since a lowering in body temperature can act as a biological cue for sleep.
Dr Frankie notes, “Studies have shown that your core temperature drops a couple of degrees to initiate sleep, reaches its lowest in the early stages of the sleep cycle (- called Non-REM sleep) and remains lower for most of the night before you wake up. This is part of your body’s circadian rhythm, which regulates your sleep-wake cycle.”
3. It may improve male fertility
To help sperm counts and production, it helps if testicles are kept at relatively cool temperatures. What can sleeping naked do to help with that? Being naked can help the natural airflow cool you down to protect your reproductive health.
If you are trying to get pregnant, we’re not suggesting you start icing your nether regions at night - but it does help to make sure you’re not overheating the sperm down there. This is often the case if you wear tight-fitting underwear, and snug, non-breathable pants and clothes. Spending some time naked will give some well-deserved air to the testicles and promote better blood circulation down there, helping to keep sperm production in tip-top shape.
4. It can help you love yourself (and your body)
A 2018 study found that people who spent more time in the nude were more likely to feel increased self-esteem and decreased negativity towards their own body image. Finding a way to love your body can help your sex life and reduce your stress hormone.
To be comfortable in your own skin, allow yourself to get familiar with it. Spending more time naked alone can help remind you just how strong, powerful and wonderful your body is. We’re too often surrounded by over-idealised images of the body. But spending more time with your bare body will help you love and appreciate it - and quite rightly so!
5. It can help keep yeast infections at bay
Yeast infections, such as thrush, thrive in warm and moist environments. By ditching the clammy and tight underwear at night, nude sleepers can let their private parts aerate freely, improving their sexual health. If you are a knicker-wearer through and through, make sure any pants you wear at night are cotton and loose.
6. It can help improve emotional intimacy
Getting sexually intimate isn’t the only reason you should get naked in bed with a partner. Studies have shown that skin-to-skin contact helps release the hormone Oxytocin - a hormone that is released in response to love - more so than clothed contact. Oxytocin plays a huge part in important emotional and social-bonding moments, such as reproduction, labour, and childbirth.
You and your partner might feel a more intense connection or bond if you are frequently partaking in skin-on-skin contact in bed. If you’re sleeping with a partner, don’t forget the cool sheets for bed. You two might overheat without them.
7. It's better for your skin
When it’s warm, it’s easy for the skin to get irritated by the heat. Overheating while facing high bedtime temperatures can cause sweating, which can lead to blocked pores and heat rash. Too many layers on or the wrong type of bedding can aggravate this.
With zero clothes, you can help eliminate a great deal of the heat and friction for the skin and help your skin breathe. Just make sure your bedding is fresh and regularly cleaned. And you might find cool bed sheets soothing, too.