The TikTok user, Jake Crossman, who is the managing partner of USA Medical (which is what the account is called on the platform), starts off the video by saying that he’s tried this one hack for better sleep and it’s worked for him consistently. “It’s so stupid and easy but I’ve been sleeping for the full night the last three nights,” shares Crossman.
“The whole idea is to get extra blood flow to your extremities so that you can relax easier once you’re sleeping. You take a wide stance right before bed and you go back and forth with your hips,” he demonstrates in the video. The hip movement is supposed to relax your hips and get blood flowing to your legs, adds the user. He then goes on to show how you incorporate a shoulder rotation and arm movement to make up the drunken monkey look. Apparently, if you do this for about a minute before you get into bed, even though you might feel it in your shoulders and hips, you’re going to have quality sleep.
We’re not going to lie. Doing this wide-stance movement with our hands up in the air when the lights were dim and we were getting into a mood of rest felt awkward and unnatural but it did make us become aware of our limbs. And focusing on your body as a way to distract yourself from anxious nighttime rumination is a sleep hygiene hack recommended by experts. We also felt some of the pent-up stress in our neck and other parts of the body melt away.
