Sweet Dreams: What's 'cricket feet', a hack that could help you sleep better at night?

Stress and anxiety can quickly take control of your sleep schedule in the modern digital age. Even while a comfortable pillow and bed can aid in lulling you to sleep, but sometimes they are not enough. Social media has once again come up with one quirky sleeping hack that involves rubbing your feet. The new hack is known as “cricket feet.” Let’s take a look. Cricket feet - The trending sleep hack Cricket feet or cricketing, is the repeated physical movement of rubbing one foot against the other, often while trying to fall asleep, psychotherapist Lee Phillips told Health. The term, of course, derives from crickets, who rub their long hind legs together on their wings. On TikTok, this bizarre self-soothing has received millions of views, and influencers have praised it. The fact that they are not the only ones who do this before going to bed has surprised a lot of TikTokers. One netizen commented, “That’s what it’s called? I have always done it. Never realized it was so common.” While another shared, “I can’t help but do this at night. I try to stop myself but I just can’t help it.” “I have done this since I was a baby. I would just say that I like to wiggle my feet but I didn’t know it was a thing that meant something,” the other one quipped. Why people love this hack The reason cricketing is so calming, according to Dr Eileen Li, a certified acupuncturist, Chinese herbalist, and physical therapist, is because your foot have many acupressure points and nerve endings that, when massaged, help to calm your central nervous system (CNS). “Foot rubbing or foot massage is a form of relaxation and stress relief that can help improve blood circulation, provide a sense of well-being and comfort and alleviate tension. Cricketing your feet also causes the production of feel-good chemicals, which aid in stress reduction,” Bustle quoted Dr Li as saying. Dr Li went on to say that there are two important acupressure spots on your feet that are associated with relaxation. Located at the top of your foot, between your first two toes, is the first one, known as Liver 3. This is an acupressure point that you often rub while cricketing. The next, known as Kidney 1, is located in a depression too deeply embedded in the motion beneath the ball of your foot, between your second and third toes. Why healthy sleep matters Recent studies have demonstrated the significance of sleep for longevity and overall health, as well as the fact that the length of sleep is not the only factor that counts. Sleep “regularity,” or going to bed and getting up at regular intervals with few mid-slumber disruptions, is more important than sleep duration. A 2023 study that was published in the Journal of the American Heart Association suggests that irregular sleep patterns may be associated with an increased risk of incident cardiovascular disease. In contrast to people who slept the same number of hours every night, the study also discovered that those whose total sleep varied by two or more hours from night to night over the week were particularly likely to have major amounts of calcified fatty plaque build up in their arteries, The New York Times reported. Inconsistent sleep has also been linked to numerous health problems, according to a study that was published in Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism.