If you’ve ever wondered if getting your beauty sleep is a real thing, it is. There are a few things you can do to try to maximize your beauty sleep every night. Understanding a little about how sleep affects how you look will let you get the sleep that keeps you looking great.
How Sleep Affects Your Skin
Sleep is hugely beneficial to your skin. Your skin repairs itself at night when it’s not busy protecting you from the sun and pollutants in the environment. Getting a full eight hours of sleep increases blood flow. This brings more key nutrients to your skin to keep it healthy and healthy looking. Part of your skin’s nightly routine is making more collagen, which fills in wrinkles and gives your skin more shape.
Stress accelerates all the processes that negatively affect your skin tone and also keeps you awake at night. This double dose of harmful effects can be reduced with a beauty sleep routine.
Develop Your Beauty Sleep Routine
Having a routine at night is a good way to prepare yourself for sleep. Your routine should focus on getting you into the right mindset for sleep and getting your skin ready to receive all the benefits of it.
1. Eliminate Distractions
The first step to preparing for sleep is ridding your surroundings of the distractions that will keep you awake. Make sure there are no noises reaching your bed that will keep you awake. Ditch your phone and the TV screen, at least, a half hour before going to bed. The blue light emitted from these screens suppresses melatonin production, a hormone that helps you fall asleep and also happens to be good for your skin.
2. A Splash of Water x2
Water should be an important part of your bedtime routine for two purposes. You need to cleanse and hydrate. Cleaning your face properly before bed prepares your skin for your nightly skincare regimen. You also don’t want to sleep on any impurities that have built up over the day. Having clean skin is the first step to having healthy skin.
Hydration is also important because your body loses water at night. Drinking water will prevent your body from robbing extra moisture from your skin, which can accentuate wrinkles and sag.
3. Bring on the Calm
As you prepare for bed, bring calming things into your environment. A calming smell like lavender can put your mind at ease. Using soothing sounds can give you something to focus on instead of the stresses of the day. Help your muscles relax by doing some light stretching or massaging to relieve tension. Your goal is to sooth your mind and bring your heart rate down.
4. Apply Your Products
Having a routine of applying skincare products at night can be very calming. It can become a trigger to your mind that it’s time for sleep. It can also be calming to reaffirm to yourself that you are focusing on your beauty.
Your skin loses more water at night than during the day. Using richer creams at night will keep your skin more hydrated while it repairs. It is also a good idea to layer products. Using a serum specifically formulated for nighttime repair followed by a night cream can give your skin the hydration and extra benefits it needs.
Wake Up from Your Beauty Sleep Looking Your Best
After a good night’s sleep, you will wake up with less darkness under your eyes, less sagging skin, and fewer lines and wrinkles. Sleep alone can do what many skincare products aim to do for your skin. Combining great sleep with great products can truly be the key to looking your best and turning back the hands of time.