possible lack of sleep solution

[Guest guest]

FORGET COUNTING SHEEP: Next time you have trouble falling asleep,

forget counting sheep. Don socks and mittens instead. If your hands and feet

are considerably warmer than the ambient temperature of your bedroom, you

will be more likely to enter dreamland quickly. Why? Kurt Kruchi of the

Chronobiology and Sleep Laboratory of Wirz-Justice at the Psychiatric

University Clinic in Basel, Switzerland, says he has the

answer. His study shows the degree of dilation of blood vessels in the hands

and feet (which increases heat loss at these extremities) is one of the best

predictors of the rapid onset of sleep. This is because, in preparation for

sleep, a prone body's temperature regulation system redistributes heat from

its core to the periphery. This phenomenon is also tightly coupled to the

release of hormones, such as melatonin, which regulate sleepiness and

wakefulness. Thus, artificially warming

your feet with a hot water bottle, Kruchi suggests, could simulate, and

hence precipitate, the body's usual route to slumber.