David777
Well-known Member
- Location
- Silicon Valley
Now that we here in the Northern Hemisphere are experiencing colder and colder temperatures each day, a familiar annoyance for some bothering going to sleep at night...COLD FEET !!! 
So something to talk and share ideas about with others here. For those many that keep their homes warm, less likely ever an issue. Also we thin folks and women tend to be more affected. But for those like this single frugal senior that tends to limit heating in my residence where 2 decades ago I turned off gas heating, dress warmly, and just occasionally turn on a small ceramic element space heater, cold feet is a nightly issue.
This last chilly week the space heater has kept my downstairs living room out of high 50Fs instead to low 60Fs temperatures. At such temperature, it doesn't really matter what socks or even down booties I may be wearing if I've been say sitting at my computer for a few hours. Living not far from the coast, our nightly temperatures average 47F in November and March, 45 in Feb, and 42F in Dec and Jan. My monthly winter electric bill for an old 60s era 2 bdrm 1200 sq ft 2 story 4 plex unit with old thin wall insulation and windows is only around $45/mo. During day hours, my old inefficient refrigerator, LED lighting, tv, and 2 computers also help raise indoor temps.
Of course, keeping the rest of one's body warm before sleep time will also affect feet. As will wearing warm socks, slippers, or booties. As a decades old backpacking enthusiast into high alpine wilderness areas often over 10,000 feet in elevation where frosty temps are common all summer months of a year, the problem is a more difficult issue to deal with than at home. At home one common known strategy is to take a warm shower before getting in to bed. What I more often do at home I'll share herein is turn on a hair dryer blowing warm air onto my cold feet for a couple minutes that also helps dry out outer skin layers with moisture. Out in wilderness inside a 15F goose down sleeping bag within a tent, there isn't any solution. Pushing the bottom of one foot up against a warmer calf or already warmed sleeping bag sections I may have been lying on have little a effect beyond making those areas chill.
As a light sleeper, it can keep me awake for an hour or two while all else is comfortable. When inactive, feet cool, blood vessels constrict reducing circulation. Another nugget of wisdom is putting one's cool feet into say an otherwise warm shoe, bootie, or sleeping bag doesn't work then for the same reason, a good way to keep a cold drink cool inside a car baking in the sun while one is off wherever doing something is to place it inside insulation like a sleeping bag as insulation works both ways.
So something to talk and share ideas about with others here. For those many that keep their homes warm, less likely ever an issue. Also we thin folks and women tend to be more affected. But for those like this single frugal senior that tends to limit heating in my residence where 2 decades ago I turned off gas heating, dress warmly, and just occasionally turn on a small ceramic element space heater, cold feet is a nightly issue.
This last chilly week the space heater has kept my downstairs living room out of high 50Fs instead to low 60Fs temperatures. At such temperature, it doesn't really matter what socks or even down booties I may be wearing if I've been say sitting at my computer for a few hours. Living not far from the coast, our nightly temperatures average 47F in November and March, 45 in Feb, and 42F in Dec and Jan. My monthly winter electric bill for an old 60s era 2 bdrm 1200 sq ft 2 story 4 plex unit with old thin wall insulation and windows is only around $45/mo. During day hours, my old inefficient refrigerator, LED lighting, tv, and 2 computers also help raise indoor temps.
Of course, keeping the rest of one's body warm before sleep time will also affect feet. As will wearing warm socks, slippers, or booties. As a decades old backpacking enthusiast into high alpine wilderness areas often over 10,000 feet in elevation where frosty temps are common all summer months of a year, the problem is a more difficult issue to deal with than at home. At home one common known strategy is to take a warm shower before getting in to bed. What I more often do at home I'll share herein is turn on a hair dryer blowing warm air onto my cold feet for a couple minutes that also helps dry out outer skin layers with moisture. Out in wilderness inside a 15F goose down sleeping bag within a tent, there isn't any solution. Pushing the bottom of one foot up against a warmer calf or already warmed sleeping bag sections I may have been lying on have little a effect beyond making those areas chill.
As a light sleeper, it can keep me awake for an hour or two while all else is comfortable. When inactive, feet cool, blood vessels constrict reducing circulation. Another nugget of wisdom is putting one's cool feet into say an otherwise warm shoe, bootie, or sleeping bag doesn't work then for the same reason, a good way to keep a cold drink cool inside a car baking in the sun while one is off wherever doing something is to place it inside insulation like a sleeping bag as insulation works both ways.
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