Sleeping Beauty – Not Just a Fantasy

If you want to stay beautiful, get enough sleep. Sleep refreshes your complexion and helps keep your youthful physique intact. Without adequate rest, the opposite can happen. Here’s how: 

• Inadequate sleep raises levels of cortisol (stress hormone), which breaks down the skin’s collagen and accelerates signs of aging like wrinkles, dryness and inflammation.
• Lack of sleep lowers levels of leptin (an appetite-suppressing hormone) and raises levels of ghrelin (an appetite-boosting hormone). In effect, on little sleep the brain registers a short energy supply and responds as it would to starvation. Not the appetite control you’re hoping for!
• Lack of sleep also equates to lack of growth hormone secretion, which is responsible for restorative processes to muscles, bones and skin as we age.

So what’s the secret to good beauty sleep?

• Start with a cool, dark room. 
• Splurge on a good mattress, pillows and sheets.
• Wear cool, comfortable, loose-fitting clothes. 
• Remove TVs, laptops and other tech gear.
• Add white noise (fan, humidifier, sound machine).