Nr. 1 Beauty Trick: Sleep
Despite this Era of Limited Social Interaction I want to do my best to feel energetic, confident, and have at least healthy, glowing skin. I have mentioned briefly the importance of sleep in my previous posts but this time decided to share an entire post about it. Sleep as a topic has become a little bit trendier than it was in the past. You must have seen several startups coming up with their sleep apps and all kinds of devices to track your sleep quality, etc. Yet, sleep is still often ignored and not fully understood.
So why I’m so passionate about it? Having enough quality sleep makes a huge positive difference in life, and is probably one of the best anti-aging and beauty tricks out there. And it costs no money. In my early 20s I wasn’t prioritizing my sleep at all. Not surprisingly I wasn’t feeling well either. It wasn’t until I started listening to Shawn Stevenson’s podcast (who is an expert in this topic), and read a book The Sleep Revolution by Arianna Huffington that I realized how essential sleep is for our overall health and wellbeing. Unfortunately this natural thing has become difficult for many. Why cannot we give our bodies the love and respect that they need? It’s like day and night, yin and yang. We need quality sleep after all our hectic daily activities because during sleep our bodies can detox, heal and rebuild cells.
Your sleep-wake cycle is controlled by your circadian rhythm (biological clock) as well as sleep homeostasis (sleep drive). Both of these are influenced by a number of internal and external factors. As Professor Matthew Walker shares to Dr. Rangan Chatterjee sleep is probably one of the most significant factor to our overall health. It’s an investment to your life and health span. Lack of quality sleep can lead to a number of chronic illnesses, such diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, depression. Professor Walker highly emphasizes not only the length but also the quality of sleep matters. The vast majority of people need at least 7 hours. Throughout our time asleep our brains will cycle repeatedly through REM and non-REM sleep (four different stages). We need all these different types of sleep because they all come with different health benefits. On the other hand, if you spend time in bed beyond your real sleep need, the sleep becomes lighter and more fragmented.
After some solid shut-eye you should feel refreshed and positive about life. We also need moments of rest during the day. Remember to make sure you leave your desk and devices at least for the duration of your lunch break, take a brief walk for some fresh air, or close your eyes and focus on your breathing for a couple of minutes.
Beauty Benefits
If it works for this gorgeous 75-year-old Norma Kamali it must really work! I love Norma’s approach to health: there’s no expiration date to reach your full potential. Nothing is as miserable as people saying ’I feel so old’. If that’s what you think, no wonder if you start to age prematurely. I used to have those toxic thoughts too when I wasn’t taking care of myself - including sleep. I was aging prematurely: my skin started to look wrinkly and my body started to become really stiff. I was shocked where my stressful life had led me and it was only getting worse. Thank goodness life can become better with age if you choose to adopt a new, healthier way of living.
Beautiful, Youthful Skin
This is the time to build new beautiful you: repair and regenerate skin, hair, nails, muscles, and bones! During the day time our skin is in defense mode fighting against UV radiation and free radicals, whereas during the night skin cells are in regeneration mode, repairing the daytime damage and generating new cells. I have noticed that if I haven’t slept enough my skin gets really dry and my eyes look puffy. Chronic sleep deprivation has been shown to make your skin age faster. There’s even a link between sleep and skin’s ability to synthesize collagen to minimize fine lines. While we sleep our bodies release growth-hormone, and reduction in it can decrease thickness and elasticity of our skin. Lack of sleep also keeps cortisol high, which can lead to inflammation and all kinds of negative skin issues, such as acne.
Healthy, Effortless Weight Maintenance
According to Professor Matthew Walker, sleep is the most under-appreciated factor contributing to healthy weight maintenance. Sleep deprivation makes people to crave for unhealthier food choices, decreases leptin (hormone responsible for feeling full) and increases ghrelin (appetite-hormone), and it also lowers the likelihood to exercise. You’re also more likely to get injured if you haven’t slept enough. On top of all of this, quality sleep maintains healthy metabolic functions. Healthy cortisol (stress hormone) and insulin (fat storage hormone) functions are crucial for metabolic efficiency. Sleep deprivation can disrupt both of these hormones and lead to insulin resistance.
Potential Sleep Disruptors
According to Dr. Frank Lipman tuning into the power and rhythm of natural light and dark cycles will make a huge difference in your sleep. This full 24-hour circadian cycles is not only about what you do at night but also what you do during the day. These are the periods of biological activity that occur when you’re awake and asleep, controlled by the way the body’s biological clock responds to light and dark. And this is what he sees in almost all of his patients and that’s being out of sync with the environment. Here are a few ideas you could do to improve your sleep quality.
Turn-off Electronics
There needs to be separation from work and sleep. Give your body enough time to relax and calm down before going to sleep. I always recommend turning off all electronic devices ideally an hour or at least 30min before your bedtime. Limit your screen time at night: blue light stimulates the brain and prevents melatonin production. Scrolling through bright videos on social media is probably the most disturbing thing to do. Also, I don’t think it’s a good idea to have your brain surrounded by strong EMFs all the time. If you really want to use your phone as an alarm clock, then turn it to airplane mode, but I always use an old-fashioned alarm clock. I normally read a hard-cover book last thing at night. If reading isn’t your thing, try meditation but I would recommend without an app.
Have An Oral And Skin Care Routine
This is individual but I always want to take a shower before bed. I want to get dust and pollution off my skin, and of course I brush and floss my teeth. I always do this evening routine before I start reading a book so that I have enough time calm down in fresh and clean environment. Also, try to go to sleep and wake up at the same time each day, including weekends, if possible.
Eat And Hydrate Just Right: Not Too Much, Not Too Little
If you need to wake up to the bathroom several times during the night, try drinking more throughout the day instead of gulping down fluids in the evening. Drinking several units of alcohol isn’t the best idea either. Another thing is meal-timing. Our digestion requires plenty of energy and thus, eating big meals can be an issue. I think this is something very individual. Since I teach physical activities during the day I prefer having the heaviest meal at night, and lighter lunch. However, I eat my dinner typically at least 2 hours before bedtime to allow time for digestion. Try what would best fit with your lifestyle. This isn’t probably an issue for most of us but since there are all kinds of people out there, I want to remind that you also need to eat enough becausehunger can keep you awake at night. Magnesium and calcium rich foods (or supplements if you really need) can help: piece of dark chocolate, pumpkin seeds, spinach. Another good aid is tryptophan (amino acid) that can help the brain to get into a relaxed state, similarly to melatonin. Great plant based sources include soy and walnuts.
Limit Caffeine
Avoid consuming too much caffeine. If you drink more than 2 cups of coffee a day or are addicted to energy drinks, I would ask why you need that? I was having 2 or 3 cups of coffee a day while I was studying at the university AND did NOT sleep enough. Once I started sleeping enough I literally craved out from this horrible addiction. Today I can have one cup or skip it completely.
Get Natural Light & Exercise Gently
Natural light during the day can certainly help to get tuned into your natural sleep cycle. Moving the body is an excellent way to reduce stress. Avoid doing intense, vigorous workouts just prior to your bed time. If you need to move your body very late in the evening, choose something more gentle like restorative yoga.
Create Your Sacred, Feng Shui Sleeping Environment
Have a clean, clutter-free space for sleeping. It should be dark and slightly cool. Avoid hard artificial light and turn off noise. Maybe follow Feng Shui rules for good energy? I’m far from perfect in feng shui but there are certainly a few things to consider. Experiment what would work for you. Ideally you would choose natural colors (like creams, chocolate and avoid strong white), earthy elements, and avoid metal. Essential oil diffusers with calming scent, like lavender or jasmine, could help too. For instance NEOM has really nice natural diffusers. If you sleep with someone and they have bad habits, like scrolling their phone, you could explain them - with love and kindness of course - how disruptive the habit is, which they very likely just haven’t ever thought about. Or politely ask them to do all-that-phone-thing somewhere else.
Sweet Dreams!
RESOURCES:
Podcasts:
Dr Chatterjee: How To Improve Your Sleep And Why You Should with Professor Matthew Walker
Articles:
Better Rhythms For Better Sleep by Frank Lipman, MD
TIME: 5 Ways Sleep Can Help You Get Slim
Feng Shui For Your Bedroom: Rules For What To Bring In & Keep Out
Books: