People's ability to fall asleep is apparently linked with the temperature of their hands and feet, according to sleep specialist Mathew Ebben, PhD with The Center for Sleep Medicine in New York.
As a normal person falls asleep, the temperature of his/her hands and feet increases by about one degree (Fahrenheit, presumably, the source did not specify). This does not happen in people with insomnia. By using temperature biofeedback, a technique that trains the brain to control temperature responses, insomniac participants actually learned to change their hand temperature and achieve sleep with about 90 percent of success.
This involves some pretty simple techniques, such as imagining the hands getting warmer, and actually creating more blood flow to the periphery to the hands, said biofeedback specialist Robert Udewitz, PhD.
Interestingly enough, "biofeedback training - and hand warming in particular - has also been shown to have a beneficial effect for patients who suffer from migraine headaches, high blood pressure, pain, stress and digestive disorders." Thus warming our hands supposedly should help us with our migraine headaches. With insomnia biofeedback should definitely help - I'll grant the good doctors that. But getting rid of migraine headaches by hand-warming - this I've got to see to believe.
Of course, biofeedback might not be for everyone. If using "temperature biofeedback" to achieve good sleep sounds too complicated, one can always use the "strawberry" method, as demonstrated bellow:
link: Can't sleep? Try warming your hands
Tuesday
Biofeedback for Sleepless with Migraines
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