How can a warm water bath help yourbaby sleep better?

Science behind warm water baths and sleep

Winding down after a long day can be difficult whether you are a new mother or not. Many of us find it hard to immediately fall asleep at night. Often we’re just too wired from all the various activities of the day and sleep is a long way from coming. You try all sorts of remedies for sleeplessness but nothing seems to work. Till someone suggests a warm water bath just before bedtime — and it usually does the trick! Have you ever wondered why?

Most of us don’t realise why this intuitive remedy to sleeplessness works; we’re just grateful it does! In fact, opting for a warm water bath at bedtime is a very simple and effective temperature manipulation technique that our bodies seem to approve of. A warm water bath cools you down, especially as you dry off and the residual water on your skin evaporates. Once your body feels cooler, you’ll find yourself getting drowsy and soon slip into restful sleep.

Correlation between internal body temperature and sleep :

As you are probably aware, the circadian rhythm, or biological clock, tells us when to eat, sleep, and wake up. This 24-hour clock regulates many functions in the body, including internal body temperature.

Figure 1: Variation of internal body temperature over the 24-hour cycle.
Courtesy: ScienceDirect

The core body temperature decreases during the nocturnal sleep phase and increases during the wake phase. Therefore, sleep is most likely to occur when the core temperature decreases.

Science of thermoregulation: Why a warm water bath cools you down ?

We now know that core body temperature correlates with sleep quality. Let’s try to understand how the process of thermoregulation works.
The hypothalamus is the part of the brain that controls body temperature. During a warm water bath, the peripheral skin temperature increases. The hypothalamus senses this and, in a process called vasodilation, sends impulses that cause blood vessels (supplying the capillaries in the skin) to dilate. Vasodilation increases blood flow to the surface tissues under the skin. This facilitates heat loss to the environment through the skin surface. The peripheral skin temperature thus plays a central role in thermoregulation by adjusting blood flow to the skin.

Now that you’ve understood how to ensure a good night’s sleep for yourself, it makes sense to extend the same courtesy to your little one! While it may seem that your baby never seems to need help falling asleep, including a warm water bath in the baby’s bedtime routine may help to improve the quality of the little one’s sleep. And both of you can wake up refreshed, ready to take on the new day!