It’s from Japan, it’s almost a century old, and it takes 30 seconds.️
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| I’ve had trouble getting to sleep lately because it’s become so warm and humid here on the island we call Great Britain. Once I’m asleep, I’m fine until morning, but I’m often fidgety and restless for the first half hour or more in bed. It’s frustrating and tiring if I have a run of nights like this. |
| So when a funny little sketch of a quick sleep technique appeared in my timeline recently, I was intrigued. Could the secret to rapidly settling into sleep be as simple as lying on your back, raising your arms and legs, and shaking your hands and feet for 30 seconds? |
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Let’s look into it,
Tim Snaith
Newsletter Editor, Healthline |
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Written by Tim Snaith
June 3, 2026 • 3 min read |
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| Did a Japanese engineer solve sleep prep 99 years ago? |
| A drawing reposted and explained by Anish Moonka (@anishmoonka) recently attracted millions of views and tens of thousands of likes. It was a rough illustration of a technique called Mōkan Undō, also known as the “capillary exercise.” You lie on your back, point your arms and legs at the ceiling, shake them loosely for 30 seconds to a minute, then let them drop and rest. |
| First proposed in 1927 by a Japanese civil engineer named Katsuzō Nishi — then the chief technical engineer on Tokyo’s first subway — the technique was published as part of a system of daily health exercises called Nishi Shiki. It’s still practiced in Japan today, but is largely unknown elsewhere. |
| The exercise may work, but not for the reasons Nishi believed. He believed that the capillaries, not the heart, did the real work of moving blood, but this idea had been overturned nearly 3 centuries earlier by the English physician William Harvey. |
| So if you try it for yourself tonight, and it works, why might that be? |
| Body heat is one possibility. In the half hour before sleep, the hands and feet grow warmer as the blood vessels inside them widen, which helps lose enough heat for the body’s temperature to drift down. A 1999 study found that this warming of the hands and feet was the single strongest predictor of how quickly people fell asleep, even beating out melatonin release, heart rate, and self-reported sleepiness. Later work supports the idea: bed socks in a cool room shortened how long it took people to fall asleep, as did a warm bath an hour or two before bed. |
| Mōkan Undō aligns with these findings: Holding the limbs straight up drains blood from them; lowering them sees it rush back, flushing the hands and feet with warmth in seconds. Whether 30 seconds of limb-raising reliably reproduces is the part no one has tested, but the evidence suggests this is a reasonable explanation. |
| The shaking raises the possibility of a body-based approach to stress management, drawn from somatic therapy, that works through physical sensation rather than talk. The idea is that brisk shaking helps shift the body out of “fight or flight” and toward “rest and digest,” in the same way an animal trembles itself calm after a fright. |
| So an old and unusual exercise happens to involve two plausible sleep mechanisms, one well-supported and one less so, and neither has been tested in this exact form. |
| This bedtime “capillary exercise” is free, takes barely a minute to complete, and the worst that could happen is feeling slightly silly if anyone’s watching. However, if you have low blood pressure, balance trouble, or difficulty lying with the legs raised, you should definitely check with your doctor first. |
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| Over to you: If you try this exercise tonight, let’s compare notes and how well it worked! Email wellnesswire@healthline.com to let us know how it went. |
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| Nervous energy |
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| Are Vagus Nerve Stimulators Are Worth The Hype? |
| The body’s “rest and digest” superhighway is the vagus nerve, and a number of new gadgets directly stimulate it to induce a state of calm. Two of our editors recently tested the Pulsetto and Truvaga Plus daily for over a month and likened the effect to an “emotional massage” with steadier sleep and greater resilience to everyday stress. The research is still figuring out the benefits, but if your budget allows, these gizmos may be worth investigating, especially paired with free habits like a minute of shaking and giggling before bed. |
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| Every product we recommend has gone through either Healthline’s or Optum Now’s vetting processes. If you buy through links on this page, we may receive a small commission or other tangible benefit. Healthline has sole editorial control over this newsletter. Potential uses for the products listed here are not health claims made by the manufacturers. Healthline and Optum Now are owned by RVO Health. |
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| Until next time, |
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Take care of yourself, and we’ll see
you again soon! |
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