known that what one wears to sleep affects
his?her sleep. It asserts that sleeping without
any clothes on has numerous advantages and
benefits. Experts revealed to DailyMail how
giving your pyjamas a long time holiday can be
beneficial to you.
For a good night’s sleep
Sleep experts agree it is important to keep cool
at night as your body temperature needs to
drop by about half a degree for you to fall
asleep. The brain, driven by your internal body
clock, sends messages to the blood vessels to
open up and release heat.
“Your core temperature is at its highest at
11:00p.m. and its lowest at 4:00a.m,” said Dr
Chris Idzikowski, Director of the Edinburgh Sleep
Centre, Scotland, and author of ‘Sound Asleep:
The Expert Guide To Sleeping Well.’ “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.
“The advantage of sleeping naked is it’s easier for
the body to cool and maintain the lower
temperature the brain wants to achieve,” he said.
Disrupted sleep from being too hot does not
just mean you will get less sleep overall, but it
might mean less deep sleep which is the most
restorative type. Deep sleep is key for memory
consolidation and the production of growth
hormone — important for cell repair and growth.
Stop infections
Wearing nothing to bed can help women avoid
developing yeast infections, such as thrush,
says Austin Ugwumadu, a consultant
gynaecologist at St George’s Hospital in South
London.
“Thrush loves warm, restricted environments. So,
wear something loose or preferably nothing at all.
“If you wear something tight, it means less air
gets to the area and you’re more likely to sweat,
which can cause irritation,” he said.
Burn calories
There is an increasing focus on brown fat, a
type of tissue in the body that may protect
against weight gain. While ordinary body fat
piles on when we eat more calories than we
burn, brown fat seems to burn excess calories
to generate heat.
We know babies have lots of brown fat, they
need it to keep warm but studies have shown
there are small amounts in the necks of adults
too. Experts believe that certain activities could
switch on this fat, potentially helping to burn
calories at a greater rate.
In a U.S. study in the journal Diabetes,
researchers found that sleeping in a cold
bedroom could activate brown fat in adults.
Five healthy young men slept in climate-
controlled bedrooms for four months. For the
first month, the room was kept at 24°C, then it
was lowered to 19°C, then it went back to 24°C
and for the last month raised to 27°C.
They ate the same amount of calories and their
calorie expenditure and insulin sensitivity how
much insulin the body needs to keep blood
sugar levels stable were measured each day.
The results were striking. After four weeks
sleeping at 19°C, the men had almost doubled
their volumes of brown fat.
Tests showed they burned more calories
throughout the day when their bedroom was
cooler (though not enough to lose weight) and
their insulin sensitivity had also improved.
Senior author, Francesco S. Celi, said the study
showed that over time, sleeping in a cold
bedroom could lessen the risk of diabetes.
Michael Symonds, professor of Developmental
Physiology at the University of Nottingham and
an expert on brown fat, says sleeping naked
may be beneficial.
“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. “So,
anything you can do to try to activate it, such as
lowering the thermostat and sleeping in the cold,
may be of benefit,” he said.
But room temperature shouldn’t be below a
level at which you feel comfortable, otherwise
you won’t sleep. People who tend to feel hot at
night and like to sleep naked, may have a high
amount of brown fat, which causes them to feel
warmer than others.
Lower blood pressure
Cosy pyjamas are tempting, but if you share a
bed with a partner, going nude will generate a
generous boost of oxytocin, a hormone that has
been shown to have a wealth of health benefits.
“It is triggered by closeness, particularly skin-to-
skin contact,” says Dr Kerstin Uvnas-Moberg, a
physiologist at the Swedish University of
Agricultural Sciences and an expert on oxytocin.
“Sensory nerves on the skin send impulses to the
brain, triggering the release. “When a baby is
placed on its mother’s chest, the blood in mother
and child starts to pulse with oxytocin,” he said.
Oxytocin has a protective effect on the heart, as it
lowers blood pressure. It also boosts the immune
system and reduces anxiety. “But it only works if
skin-on-skin touching is something you’re happy
with,” he added.
Boost your love life
People who sleep naked have happier love lives,
according to a survey of 1,000 British adults by
a bedsheet company this year. The study found
57 per cent of nude sleepers were happy with
their relationship, compared with 48 per cent of
pyjama wearers and 43 per cent of nightie
wearers (onesie wearers were just 38 per cent).
Sleeping naked is a good strategy for those
with body image issues, says Denise Knowles,
sex therapist at counselling charity Relate.
“You can slip under the sheets and then take
your clothes off, and then you can be touched,
even if you don’t want to be looked at. “Pyjamas
might give the message ‘not tonight,’ but equally
a lot of couples have a lot of fun taking each
other’s clothes off,” she said.
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