health

Will Beauty Sleep Really Make You Beautiful?

We're all looking for the secret to beauty, and will do almost anything to achieve it. Expensive treatments, painful procedures, perilous trips flipping through clothing racks and obsessive study of magazine and Youtube makeup tutorials. But does the secret to beauty lie within our control? Beauty Sleep has long been considered a myth, but there are actually science-backed reasons why getting sleep can enhance our beauty. Puffy eyes, dark circles, wrinkles and dull complexions are all a result of sleeplessness. Here are some tips to ensure you're well on your way to being as beautiful as ever!

Routine

Establishing a routine is one of the best ways to get a full-night's rest every time. Set a strict bedtime and wake time every day. Consistency is key. Your body will start feeling sleepy as your bedtime approaches, and you'll feel ready to wake up at your scheduled waking hour. Use whatever you have to use to keep this schedule. If social events forbid you from keeping this schedule one or two nights a week (we all have lives, I know), try a short power nap in the middle of the day to rejuvenate. Nights when you stay out until 2am will almost always make you feel cranky and zombie-like the next day. So take care of yourself and keep these nights to a minimum. At the very least, take off your makeup before passing out in bed.

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Eliminate Distractions

Sleep is sacred, and you must treat your body with respect. This means turning that phone off before bed! Anything that has even a remote chance of going off while you're trying to get your precious beauty rest will jolt you out of sleep. A good thing to remember is that your bedroom is a sanctuary, and your bed should not be your office or your movie theater.

REM

REM sleep is perhaps the most important part of the sleep cycle. It stands for Rapid Eye Movement and is the deepest stage of sleep in which we dream. This sleep is also the most restorative. To ensure that we get our REM, we have to prevent ourselves from waking up throughout the night. Try soothing, warm liquids like chamomile tea to help wind down.

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Darkness

Melatonin is a hormone that detects darkness. It's an essential in determining when it's time to go to sleep. Up to an hour or so before bed, you should not watch TV or look at a bright screen if you can help it. The blue lights have a negative impact on your ability to sleep. Try the simplest solution -- a sleepmask. These come in many varieties and are great for blocking out extra light. It's important to keep your circadian rhythms in check.

Positioning

Studies show that sleeping on your back is the best position to help spine alignment and comfort. Make sure you have a comfortable amount of pillows and cushioning to feel like you're floating on a cloud and minimize your tossing and turning!

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Treat your skin

At night, you should always moisturize. Use a non-SPF moisturizer on the face and an eye repair cream under the eyes. And make sure to remove all pore-clogging makeup!

White noise

Not just a failed radio signal, but actually helpful for sleep! A white noise machine drowns out any surrounding noise to give us a consistent wash of sound. Soothing music is also helpful to wind down.

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Eliminate caffeine

Caffeine is often the culprit for feeling restless at night, so cut it out! This doesn't mean to cut it out entirely, but you should be careful about when and how much caffeine you consume. According to the National Sleep Foundation, while caffeine is good for a morning jolt, too much consumed during bed time can cause problems. It can take up to 6 hours for one half of the caffeine you consume to be eliminated once in the body.

Don't exercise too late at night

Of course, regular exercise is important to maintain health. However, a lot of people don't have time to exercise in the morning and do it at night instead. It's not good to get our heart rate up right as we're about to settle into sleep, and all of that energy may make it hard to get ready for bed. So don't exercise a few hours before bed. Make the necessary schedule changes to combat this, and try a more soothing exercise instead, like stretching.

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Feeling sleepy? We hope you get a full-night's rest with these sleep tips, and wake up feeling more beautiful than ever!

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