Lately I’ve been waking up with one sock on and one sock off. Usually it’s my left foot that ends up sockless, while the sock on my right foot seems perfectly in place. When this happens, I get up and go about my morning routine while walking around the house wearing only one sock because, apparently, it takes too much time to remove the one I’m still wearing. What annoys me most about this scenario is then, when it comes time to make the bed, I end up searching through a sea of blankets until I locate the missing sock. If I can’t locate it within thirty seconds, I give up, make the bed and go about my day only to find a bunch of unpaired socks wrapped up in the sheets on laundry day. First World problems, I know.
Most people wouldn’t spend much time thinking about something so trivial, but I’m not most people. One night as I was trying to fall asleep (with both socks on) I started wondering what the hell am I doing in my sleep to make this happen? Is my left foot getting warmer than my right foot? Are both feet getting hot, but I’m too lazy to pull off both socks? Does the dog pull it off because my feet are constantly disrupting her sleep? Or, am I randomly pulling it off because my subconscious is trying to tell me something? It could be none of these things, or it could be all of them, who really knows. But, because I like to think of life as one giant metaphor, I think there’s something deeper going on here.
Just for fun, let’s suppose my feet represent the vastly different sides of my brain—the left brain and the right brain. Left-brained people are said to be more analytical and logical. They’re good with numbers, facts and analyzing data. And, did you know that the left side of the brain has more neurons than the right? It’s true, but before you go about thinking left-brained people are smarter, that’s not necessarily the case. Right-brained people tend to be more creative, intuitive and have a knack for the arts. The right side of the brain is what allows us to see the world in three dimensions, and without that we’d all just be flat pieces of paper floundering aimlessly through life without hope, inspiration or purpose.
Clearly I fall in the right brain category. I like to think visually, I love being creative and I’m definitely a daydreamer. Numbers don’t compute well in my head and logic is sometimes completely lost on me altogether. Still, I do have a knack for retaining certain facts, and song lyrics seem to stick in my head for really long periods of time, yet I can’t remember what I ate for lunch yesterday. It’s weird how the mind works.
Now, you might be wondering what the hell my point is to all of this, and believe it or not, I do have one, so here it is—we all go through life sometimes with one sock on and one sock off. It’s called being human. Life is all about stuffing information in our heads and figuring out how to use it. Some of us are better at it than others, but deep down we’re all just trying to keep our feet warm while moving them in a positive direction down an unknown path. No matter what side of our brains we use to do the most thinking, we all tend to interpret things differently. The trick is knowing how to bridge the gap between knowledge and interpretation and using all of that “stuff” in a useful way to make the world a better place. We don’t always succeed, but it’s the trying that counts.
Maybe waking up with one sock on and one sock off means absolutely nothing, or maybe it’s life’s way of telling me I need to nurture my creative side by keeping it warm and cozy, and my analytical side needs to breath because the engines are running too hot. I doubt I’ll ever really know, but sometimes it’s less about knowing and more about taking the hint. It’s this very reason why we can’t seem to survive without love, but we hate the idiotic things we do because of it.
So, if you’re like me and you like to sleep with your socks on, remember this the next time you wake up wearing only one—the elastic in your left sock is shot, you should probably buy new socks, or just stop wearing them when you sleep because the pile of unpaired socks on top of your dryer is getting out of control, either way you’re welcome (and thanks for reading).
P.S. … Winona Ryder is clearly right brained.
My dear daughter……you were always a sock child. Now you’re a one sock adult. All those socks without a match make great dust cloths. They fit a hand nice and snug. Spray a little pledge on it and wipe away!
I have a ‘scary’ situation with my socks. I put my socks on the nightstand next to my bed. I put them on in the winter before I go to the bathroom. Last night I KNOW I took my socks off and put them on the nightstand before bed. But when I woke up my socks were IN my bed at the foot of the bed. TWO pair instead of one. I have no idea how that happened. I pray I do not sleep walk. There is no other LOGICAL explanation. 🙂
I just need you to know I literally googled ‘why do I only take one sock off’ and was very pleased to come across this blog. #notcrazy
I literally just woke up to Google “why I wake up with one sock on and one off” ☺… Been happening as long as I can remember.. Same thing wake up and go about my daily activities walking around with one sock on.. my left sock.. Crazy thing is it happens to my son too .. same feet, since he was a baby.. his ten now .. 🤔 .. 2:57 am lol
This has been happening to me as well. I think it’s more sinister than you think. For years I would randomly wake up with one sock on, until one day I found out why.
I was asleep on right side with hands pretty much under pillow and legs somewhat curled up. I fell asleep that way.
That’s,
When I finally found out why my sock keeps coming off
When I awoke no more than about an hour of falling asleep, I woke up and was not able to move one part of my body, and that’s when I felt it. The room was very dark and what I felt would scare almost anyone. My left leg was literally in the air and it felt like something was trying to pull it off. I tried to look but I couldn’t move.tried to talk but couldn’t. The whole time my leg is levatating as if someone was pulling it.
That’s when I started praying in Jesus name. In my head, the more I prayed the more control I got. The first thing I was able to move was my head, when I turned to look my leg hit the bed. As I turned I saw darkness covering the room and me, whatever was there let out a screeching noise trying to scare me back to a state of immobilization, when “it” noticed I wasn’t scared it had a look of surprise on its face. And that’s when the room became clear again. This experience excited me because it only reassures my Faith even more.
I really hope this helps someone.
I don’t sleep with my socks on, but I always end up absentmindedly taking off one of my socks while I’m lounging after a long day. I wanted to find something to prove to my wife that this is infact a phenomenon, and we found this article as the first result on google. I’m happy to report that we read the whole article and it was great and well voiced. I quite enjoyed all of this!
From a fellow one-socker to another, may your socks always fit when you need them to.