Beauty Sleep
Beauty Sleep. Are You Getting Enough?
We’ve all heard about beauty sleep. It is so common a phrase that we tend not to think much about it. Sure, beauty sleep…hahah….off you go to bed. Well, like many old sayings there is more than a touch of truth to the beauty sleep claim. Beauty sleep is real people. And it’s free. And you can start it tonight.
Let’s just talk about skin for a moment and forget all the other health benefits of good sleep. Your skin needs sleep and without it it becomes tired and stressed and doesn’t work anywhere near as well. Yes, our skin has important jobs to do like retain moisture, guard against wind and sun and help regulate our temperature. Toxins and impurities are expelled through the pores in our skin. Our skin is the biggest organ in our body.
When we sleep our skin goes into repair mode. If you like, renewing itself in readiness for the next day of environmental exposure. New skin cells grow to replace old and damaged cells. These new cells are designed and ready to protect you. They look new and fresh because they are. On the contrary, without good sleep our skin does not get the opportunity to renew and rebuild. Our tired cells need to back up over and over again for day on day of exposure. The skin cells become damaged, cracked, dry and ineffective. So what does that look like on your face? Well think skin that loses it’s lustre. Skin that is dry and limp with less elasticity. Skin that has uneven pigmentation. Puffy skin. Bags under eyes. Fine lines and wrinkles. Shall I go on? How about if you add smoking, alcohol, caffeine and other toxins to the mix? Your body wants to get rid of those toxins and if your skin is not in good shape then you are going to be less effective in getting rid of it all. And then there is stress and tension and the damage that does on a micro level to your skin cells.
All this skin doom & gloom! Let’s change the mood. Its easy. Just look after your skin a bit. Don’y force it to deal with over exposure to sun or wind or cold. Don’t put too much pressure on it by loading your body with toxins. Try not to get too stressed about things. AND AND AND AND make sure you get plenty of beauty sleep to give your skin the opportunity to repair itself. Why, because it’s your only skin and although they say beauty is only skin deep, I say healthy skin is beautiful skin. And good health is much more than skin deep.
Remember, skin recovers quickly so get a good night’s sleep tonight and tomorrow and of the rest of the week and you’ll notice…..and so will everyone else. And try to sleep on your back if you can. Back sleeping is the recommended sleep posture for many reasons, but one cosmetic reason is to reduce fine lines and wrinkles. Eight hours of a wrinkled forehead squashed into a pillow doesn’t help those fine lines and wrinkles. Face up, gravity down is the way to go.
