This Foot Trick Is Helping People Sleep

It’s a quirky self-soothing habit known as “cricket feet” that's supposed to help you fall asleep. It has a whopping 69 billion views on TikTok, but unlike a lot of things you find on there, there’s a legit reason this works.

Doing cricket feet is simply rubbing your feet and toes together, like a cricket. So why does this help you start snoozing sooner? Dr. Eileen Li, a licensed acupuncturist, Chinese herbalist and physical therapist, explains that the feet are full of nerve endings and acupressure points and when they’re stimulated, they help calm the central nervous system. It turns out, the motion of cricket feet hits the right acupressure points for relaxation.

“It can help alleviate tension, improve blood circulation, and provide a sense of comfort and well-being,” Li says. The repetitive motion of cricketing your feet is soothing and she says it also helps release feel-good hormones that relieve stress. According to Li, there are two specific acupressure points on the feet related to relaxation:

• The LV3 or Liver 3, which is located on the top of your foot between your first and second toes.
• There’s also a grounding spot on the sole of the foot, under the ball of the foot located in a depression between the second and third toes called the KD1 or Kidney 1, and it’s often part of the cricket motion as well.