Most of us would like to spend more time on our health and beauty regime.
But too often life tends to get in the way and you don’t always have time to do things like properly take care of your skin.
So how about if you could improve on something you are already doing?
Yeah right, like what?
I am talking about improving your sleep. We spend 30% of our lives sleeping, but if we’re not doing it right it can have many knock on effects, including our physical appearance.
We all heard of the term “getting my beauty sleep”. But what’s the truth behind this common belief and how exactly do you go about getting some beauty sleep? Keep on reading to find 5 easy ways to turn your sleep into beauty sleep.
1) Nourish your skin
Spotty, dull or just dry skin – we’ve all been there. But did you know that poor skin health can be exacerbated by poor sleep habits?
Now most of the time, this wouldn’t happen to us. Under normal sleeping conditions, our bodies care for us. The body restores itself during sleep, hence the name restorative sleep. To give some good examples, here’s how sleep can be good for your your skin:
Prevent sagging skin. When sleeping the skin makes new collagen which prevents your skin sagging and losing its natural elasticity.
Healthy glow. Your body increases blood flow to your skin when sleeping. This gives your skin a natural healthy glow.
A simple way to enhance your skin care during the night is by adding a serum or moisturizer. By simply using a serum or moisturiser before bedtime you will support the restorative healing process of the body.
One of the best serums to take is a Vitamin C Serum. It not only illuminates the skin, but it also combats acne. It also acts as an antioxidant for your skin so it helps to combat the ageing process.
>> Read More: 5 ways poor sleep affects your skin
2) Mind your make up
Wearing make up during your sleep can clog up your pores and obstruct the breathing of your skin. This can result in dry skin, acne and the deepening of wrinkles.
So I guess you can already see what I am trying to get across.
Take your time to remove your make up before going to bed! Incorporate it into your bed time ritual.
But I get it. There are some days you might not have the time or you are just out of energy to do this.
Keep some face wipes next to your bed
Well, you are in luck today. By simply keeping some high-quality face wipes next to your bed for a quick clean up. The face wipes will clean up most of your make up and in doing so reduce most of the damage.
>> Read More: Scientists confirm beauty sleep is a real thing
3) Change your pillowcases once a week
Why should you should change your pillows once a week?
Apart from general hygiene, one of the main reasons is to remove the dust mite population that lives on your pillowcase.
Yeah a lot of people heard about them dust mites. But did you know that around 84% of the houses contains a dust mite population? And getting control of your dust mite population is pretty important. The dust mites itself are annoying but their waste products can cause a lot of trouble for you.
Dust mites and their by-products can get stuck in your pores or they can even obstruct your breathing. This causes you to get a lot of allergic reactions like red eyes, runny nose, acne or trouble breathing.
By washing your pillows once a week you kill and remove the dust mite population living on your pillow.
4) Keep your head elevated
Instead of just using 1 pillow try sleeping on 2 pillows. If you do not have a second pillow you can surely be creative enough to keep your head elevated. This simple action can greatly improve on how you will feel the next day.
Prevent puffy eyes. If you sleep/lie flat on a clear surface then you might wake up with puffy eyes the next morning. Not the best way to start the day if you would ask me.
But by simply adding some height to your sleep routine you can stop fluid from going under your eyes. By doing this you will prevent waking up with puffy eyes.
Sinusitis. Waking up with a clogged nose, coughing and some pain/ pressure on your face?
Well this might be a sign that you’ve got sinusitis. No need to worry. As you can prevent it or reduce the symptoms of Sinusitis. Let gravity do its work and help you drain your sinuses more easily. Just keep your head elevated during your sleep.
If this all did nothing for you then maybe this will. Sleeping with your head elevated has been linked with the possibility of reducing snoring. So if not for yourself do it for your partner.
5) Sleep with an eye mask on
Sleeping with an eye mask has the obvious benefit of blocking out light and is a must for anyone who is traveling.
But it’s also useful for those who want to prevent wrinkles around the eyes.
What did you say preventing wrinkles? Yes an eye mask is a great remedy for pillow face wrinkles. These are the types of wrinkle you get from rubbing your face against your pillow. This friction creates some nasty wrinkles leaving you with unattractive creases round your eyes in the morning.
A quality eye-mask, ideally made of silk will prevent this from happening.
Fabian Tjong is the guy behind the blog NapSeason, a site is dedicated to providing readers with valuable and trusted information to help their struggles with insomnia, sleep apnea and other sleep problems.