Stress and anxiety can sometimes take over your sleep routine, leaving you wide awake and unable to stop your racing thoughts.
While a comfy pillow and comforter can help soothe you to sleep, that sometimes is not enough. In fact, you might have to give your feet some extra love at night to truly fall asleep.
TikTok is once again bringing up weird sleeping hacks, this time involving your feet. Despite some interesting ones in the past, including the inflatable pillow hack or wearing mouth tape to bed, this hack has the strangest name.
People are raving about “cricket feet” which consists of rubbing your feet together to soothe yourself to sleep.
A popular content creator, @notyouraveragethrpst, posted a video of her performing the hack in her bed before going to sleep. She admitted in the caption that this is something she often does, but never realized it until it gained popularity on social media. (1)
Others in the comment section even admitted to “cricketting their feet.” One user said “that’s the only way I’d go to sleep,” and another commented that “that’s what it’s called? I’ve always done it. Never realized it was common.” (1)
This hashtag for “cricket feet” has gone viral earning 70.8 billion views on TikTok. So what makes this trend stand out from the others? To learn more about this viral sleep trend, we spoke with some experts on how the act of rubbing your feet can make you feel extra comfy.
What Do The Experts Say?
Have you caught yourself rubbing your feet at night under the covers? Maybe you’ve thought it’s just because you’re cold? Well, you don’t just do this for no reason.
We spoke with Michelle Di Paolo, founder and psychotherapist for Stress and Relaxation Services of America. She said it’s normal for humans to engage in self stimulating movements, such as knee bouncing and twirling hair, as a way to feel more calm and focused.
Di Paolo explains stimming behaviors tend to produce benefits to our nervous system, both to the central and peripheral nervous system, resulting in calming or focused sensations. “‘Cricket feet’ are perhaps a form of stimming, thus assisting in pre-sleep relaxation,” she said.
Even though you might not realize it, feet rubbing is impacting your nervous system and calming you down. Additionally, Di Paolo said feet rubbing is similar to hand warming because both stimulate your nervous system in the same way.
“Hand warming (blowing into or rubbing one’s hands together) is a biofeedback technique, which research has shown activates the parasympathetic nervous system resulting in immediate cardiovascular relaxation and other stress hormone benefits,” she said. “The same may be true with rubbing feet together, building warmth and stimulating parasympathetic dominance for relaxation.”
Also, who needs to get a foot massage when you can do it yourself. Di Paolo explained that rubbing your feet together provides the same sensation as a gentle foot massage, hence the feeling of relaxation.
Even though the hack has a strange name, it is definitely one of the most normal hacks we have seen on TikTok. Maybe it’s time to throw out the mouth tape and just start rubbing your feet together instead. Sounds a little more safe to us.
Sources
Di Paolo Michelle. Personal Interview. September 2024.
1. NOTYOURAVERAGETHRPST on TikTok. TikTok. November 5, 2022. https://www.tiktok.com/@notyouraveragethrpst/video/7162707410493132074?referer_url=www.bustle.com%2Fwellness%2Fcricket-feet-in-bed&refer=embed&embed_source=121355058%2C121351166%2C121331973%2C120811592%2C120810756%3Bnull%3Bembed_blank&referer_video_id=7162707410493132074.
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