Should You Sleep with a Bra or Not?

You feel restless

Admit it. It isn’t the most pleasant sensation in the world when you have to sleep wearing a bra that’s tight, like sports bras and their super tight plastic bands. It’s the same as wearing skinny jeans to bed, you know. You’re constantly uncomfortable because that piece of clothing is tugging or pulling at your skin, and is not even allowing it to breathe.
And if you’re wearing an underwire, your chances of the wire digging into your breasts when you’re sleeping (and off guard) increase!

The physiology of your breasts is affected

Did you know that sleeping with a bra affects your lymphatic system? It restricts the blood flow to your breasts, as well as to neighboring areas, including the surrounding muscles and lymph nodes around your breast and armpits. This hinders your body’s ability to flush out toxins and waste products from your body. This in turn affects the functioning of your kidneys, liver and other organs of your body. And if this goes on for years, you chances of developing breast cancer increase… by a lot.

Not only this, it also leads to fluid retention, also called oedema, and prolonged wear of bras during night time can even result in chronic inflammation.

Your skin cannot breathe

Look, just like the moment you get home you wanna get into a more comfortable pair of clothes so that your body can relax and breathe, your breasts need to breathe too. And the equivalent of sweatpants for your breasts is… going braless! Plus, if you don’t let your skin breathe…

You might face serious skin irritation

Tight clothing constantly rubs against your skin, which in turn might lead to rashes and itching. Because if your skin isn’t breathing and you have a layer of tight clothing over it, your sweat is going to accumulate and rashes are going to appear.

Apart from that, the straps, hooks and even plastic buckles (which constantly protrude all the time, by the way) can easily protrude into your skin. And when you wear the same bras day in and night, this constant protrusion will result in lesions or even cysts! You might not notice the pain during night time because you might have become too used to it. So just get rid of the habit of sleeping with a bra. You will instantly notice a vast difference in your comfort levels.

It can disturb your sleep cycle

This one doesn’t need to be said, but I’ll still say it. Sleeping with your bra on in most cases will make you uncomfortable, and we all know how tough it is to fall asleep when one is not feeling comfortable. And if your sleep cycle starts getting affected, not only will it affect your overall health, it will reflect in your work as well. Not to mention the fact that people who sleep less are more likely to gain weight!

It increases your chances of fungal infection

This might be hard to believe, but it’s true, especially for women living in warm and humid climates, or those that have bigger breasts. The thing is, we’ve already established that tight bras make you sweat, but did you know that apart from rashes, your sweat is also a potential breeding ground for bacterial or even fungal infections? The sweat provides these micro organisms with the perfect environment to thrive and breed, so it’s always advised to break that cycle by going braless at night.

It has no anti-sagging benefits

Contrary to what you may believe, sleeping with a bra does not in any way help delay the sagging of your breasts. That’s just a myth. The thing is, your breasts sag when gravity is at play. Which means when you’re standing, gravity tugs at your breasts in the direction of your toes. However, when you’re sleeping, especially if you’re lying on your back, the same gravity pushes the breast tissue back towards your chest. So ultimately, wearing a bra is redundant when you’re sleeping.