So here’s a question for the scientifically minded out there… How come when you sleep in your clothes you wake up with a funny taste in your mouth, but when you sleep in your bed at night the same doesn’t happen?
Maybe that doesn’t happen to you. But I’ve noticed that if I take a nap while I am wearing clothes I always awake with a funny taste in my mouth, but the same doesn’t happen after a full nights sleep in my bed. How come?
I decided to do a quick Google around to see if I could learn the answer to this question, but I couldn’t find anything quickly. What I did learn though, is that sleep itself is still something that we apparently know little about. Some scientists theorize that we sleep in order to collate and process things we recently learned and experienced. But that’s just one theory of quite a few it would seem.
It appears though, that for all the sleep studies that are being done, no one seems to be researching why sleeping in your clothes leaves that funny taste in your mouth, while sleeping without clothes on doesn’t. So either this is something that only happens to me, or scientists have better and far more important things to be getting on with. Which reminds me, I really must get back to work!
—
[Podcast] Why we sleep
Wake Up, Little Susie. By David Plotz
Why Do We Sleep? By Amanda Schaffer
Learning while we sleep and dream
Wrote the following comment on May 24, 2007 at 5:34 pm
um, this isn’t very scientific, but don’t you think it’s because you brush your teeth before sleeping in your bed at night but not before taking a nap??
Wrote the following comment on May 24, 2007 at 5:35 pm
here’s another question, though…. why do I drool a huge puddle when I take naps but not when I’m sleeping at night?
Wrote the following comment on May 24, 2007 at 7:16 pm
I wonder if it because what you have eaten or drunk before you sleep in your clothes. Often you fall asleep after food and certainly after a night on the drink.
Do you snore? If so then this means that you are sleeping by breathing through your mouth. This often causes a dryness in the mouth and therefore this can then lead to a funny taste as it is not natural. I always find this if I have a blocked nose during a cold. This is when you have to breath through your mouth.
Wrote the following comment on May 24, 2007 at 9:37 pm
“But I’ve noticed that if I take a nap while I am wearing clothes I always awake with a funny taste in my mouth, but the same doesn’t happen after a full nights sleep in my bed. How come?”
I’m thinking that, for many people, the bulk of any “little nap in my clothes” episodes they might have experienced involve alcohol … hence, the bad taste. Not that I would have any expertise in this area myself
Wrote the following comment on May 24, 2007 at 11:49 pm
If I nap during the day I always wake up hungry but never when i sleep a full night then wake up in the morning.
I do think this is pretty odd and it may have to do with you are not sleeping as deeply and your mouth may be open???? that would make it taste different I suppose. Hmmmm maybe you should look into a sleep study. Or quit chewing on your clothes lol
Wrote the following comment on May 25, 2007 at 12:45 am
My naps aren’t alchol related and I think that surely the bulk of people’s little naps aren’t alchol related. That’s a terribly cynical opinion :-)
Maybe it has something to do with body temprature? Who knows.
Wrote the following comment on May 25, 2007 at 7:12 am
Perhaps you could film yourself sleeping both with and without clothes, to see if there are any physical differences. Maybe that’s just a bit too far though! :)
Wrote the following comment on May 25, 2007 at 7:22 am
I think we sleep so that we won’t go mad. Once I went without sleep for 4 days, and I was literally delusional by the end of it. I was hearing sounds and seeing things that were not there. My eyes kept focusing on a piece of open space…
Sleep brings me sanity. And they don’t call it beauty rest for nothing! =D
Wrote the following comment on May 25, 2007 at 7:50 am
There’s a guy at the moment trying to break the record for going without sleep, he has been awake for 10 days.
Oh and the previous record was held by a guy called Randy Gardner. No wonder he couldn’t sleep ;-)
Wrote the following comment on May 25, 2007 at 12:20 pm
I get the funny taste whether I sleep in my bed or not. Clothed, or unclothed. I dislike it intensely.
Wrote the following comment on May 25, 2007 at 3:59 pm
i dont think i’ve ever had this problem…but maybe its time to change the labels you wear. I hear sleeping in armani gives you a fresh minty taste.
Wrote the following comment on May 28, 2007 at 4:23 pm
Excuse my ignorance, but what’s a nap?
(Pichel, father of 2)
;-)
Wrote the following comment on May 29, 2007 at 10:55 pm
A nap is simply a small or quick sleep!
Wrote the following comment on May 31, 2007 at 2:52 pm
Regardless of where or when I sleep I wake up with a bad taste in my mouth…
Wrote the following comment on Jun 11, 2007 at 2:14 pm
I always wondered that very same thing! In fact I only found your site after Googling the same question. I have however found that even if i sleep at night with my clothes on and without brushing my teeth, I still don’t get that horrible taste in my mouth when I wake up that i do with a daytime sleep! So I’m thinking it must be something to do with the time of day, although still no idea why, how weird…