# Why does head massage make you sleepy **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 14, 2016, 10:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-head-massage-make-you-sleepy/757336 "2016-06-14T10:29:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Nansbread1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Nansbread1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nansbread1)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2016, 10:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-head-massage-make-you-sleepy/757336/1 "2016-06-14T10:29:28Z")
A head massage or just someone lightly rifling through your hair, can induce strong reaction of sleepiness. Many experience this. Why? ---
**Author:** ![dolphinboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dolphinboy/32/330_2.png) [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2016, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-head-massage-make-you-sleepy/757336/2 "2016-06-14T15:55:55Z")
I’ve never heard of someone lightly rifling through your hair making you sleepy, but anything that relaxes you enough makes you sleepy. Getting a head massage can be pretty relaxing. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2016, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-head-massage-make-you-sleepy/757336/3 "2016-06-14T16:28:12Z")
Never heard of it, either, but I also posit the relaxation theory. Who are these “many” people who experience this? ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2016, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-head-massage-make-you-sleepy/757336/4 "2016-06-14T17:15:29Z")
If someone starts lightly rifling through my hair, I tell them to stop lightly rifling through my hair. ---
**Author:** ![BeeGee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b5a626/32.png) [@BeeGee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeeGee)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2016, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-head-massage-make-you-sleepy/757336/5 "2016-06-14T17:43:54Z")
As one very uncomfortable physical therapy session demonstrated, it does not relax me or make me sleepy. It makes me extremely tense and unhappy. I’d find lightly rifling through my hair pretty damned creepy. Who are all these people? ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2016, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-head-massage-make-you-sleepy/757336/6 "2016-06-15T00:53:21Z")
> [@BeeGee](#): > > As one very uncomfortable physical therapy session demonstrated, it does not relax me or make me sleepy. It makes me extremely tense and unhappy. I’d find lightly rifling through my hair pretty damned creepy. Who are all these people? Me for one and a lot of the guys that get the MVP package at SportClips that includes a scalp massage for another. I will pass out dead to the world if someone gives me a scalp good massage for a few minutes. I don’t understand the confusion. Scalp massages a real thing and they are done to relax people. Deep relaxation often translates to sleepiness. This isn’t some bizarre concept. You can also use it on cranky babies and pets to put them to sleep. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2016, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-head-massage-make-you-sleepy/757336/7 "2016-06-15T00:56:34Z")
In one massage class I took, while doing the session on massaging legs, the masseuse teaching the class told us that lightly massaging the back-side of a person’s knees could put a person to sleep. More generally, I suspect: If the participating parties are comfortable with each other, and comfortable about massage, I’d kinda expect that gently massaging just about any part of one’s body (with certain exceptions) could put someone to sleep. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2016, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-head-massage-make-you-sleepy/757336/8 "2016-06-15T01:06:41Z")
In my experience (UK English) “rifling through” mean “searching frantically”. Is that different in the US? I would say “running my fingers through” someone’s hair. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2016, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-head-massage-make-you-sleepy/757336/9 "2016-06-15T01:25:40Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > In my experience (UK English) “rifling through” mean “searching frantically”. Is that different in the US? I would say “running my fingers through” someone’s hair. It means the same thing in U.S. English. It is all about perception. I would never say someone was ‘rifling through’ my hair unless they were aggressively looking for parasites but some people apparently don’t like someones’s fingers in their hair in almost any context. That is fine but it is more uncommon than not in my experience. The scalp has a very high number of nerve endings that are easily manipulated to induce anything from pain to pleasure to deep relaxation. That is the basic reason scalp massages are so effective in inducing drowsiness. I couldn’t tell you all of the biochemical steps involved but it isn’t unique to scalp massages or light touches. Any sensitive (non-sexual) body part can induce the same thing for many people to a greater or lesser degree. ---
**Author:** ![purplehearingaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@purplehearingaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehearingaid)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2016, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-head-massage-make-you-sleepy/757336/10 "2016-06-15T01:30:16Z")
I have head trauma so just touching my head hurt , I don’t get sleepy. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2016, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-head-massage-make-you-sleepy/757336/11 "2016-06-16T02:29:17Z")
[ASMR](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomous_sensory_meridian_response). It’s not just sounds. As you can read in the article, we still don’t know exactly what causes it, nor why some people get it and others don’t. But the subjective experience alone seems to warrant a name. Though, if you don’t feel the “tingles,” it might just be a conditions relaxation response. As in, you were relaxing when it happened, and now you associate it with relaxation.