Beauty Sleep - A Natural and Safe Way To Look Younger

Many people have heard about “beauty sleep” and the idea that getting a little rest at night can help you wake up looking your best. While many women (and men) have sworn by the idea of beauty sleep for centuries—can it really make a difference in your appearance?

The truth about beauty sleep may surprise you and you may be shocked to find that there is no better addition to your beauty routine than some beauty sleep. In fact, it is one of the most effective, natural and safest ways to look and (and feel) younger and more beautiful. Take a look at some of the background and benefits of beauty sleep and what it can do for you.

Beauty Sleep

So, what exactly is beauty sleep? Simply put, it is getting enough sleep at night so that your body can recover and repair itself. Most people know that getting 7-9 hours of sleep at night can help with things like healing when you are sick or helping you wake up feeling more rested—but it does more than that.

This is the only time that your body has to make important repairs, particularly to your skin. If your body can’t get in full restore and repair mode it can impact everything form your collagen production (i.e. what gives you those wrinkles) to the bags under your eyes.

In fact, if you are someone that is getting less than 6 hours per day, experts say, it is likely impacting your appearance. The great thing about beauty sleep, however, is that it doesn’t take long to work. In fact, most people that get in that 7-9 hour range of sleep start seeing physical improvements in their skin after just one night—with more noticeable and lasting results really kicking in after 2-3 weeks.

Getting enough sleep is important, but so is the right sleep environment. Most beauty experts recommend that you clean and replace your pillowcase often (after all, your skin and hair will have direct contact with it every night) and that you sleep on silk sheets and pillow cases if possible. These are gentler on both the hair and the skin. Of course, there are other things that you can do in addition to getting your beauty sleep, like avoiding alcohol and cigarettes and drinking plenty of water that will only aid in the process—but trust us when we say there is no easier way to help yourself look more beautiful than by getting the quality sleep you need every night.

Plus, getting enough sleep can also help you feel more alert and awake, help with certain health conditions and even help you maintain a healthy weight.

Benefits

So, how exactly does beauty sleep work? Take a look at some of the proven benefits of beauty sleep and how it can impact your appearance. If you are looking for safe and natural ways to improve your appearance from the inside out, take a look at some of these benefits below.

Fewer Wrinkles

If there is one thing that many older women and men are looking for in a beauty regimen—it is wrinkle reduction. Wrinkles are something that simply happen when we age as our bodies start producing less collagen naturally. However, we never stop producing collagen, even when we get older, it just gets a little more difficult when we age. The good news is, skin makes new collagen when we sleep as it “repairs” the skin and helps to prevent sagging and wrinkling.

The more time you have to sleep, the more time your body has to make collagen—so you can have plumper, fuller, less wrinkled looking skin. According to some dermatologists, if you are only getting five hours of sleep per night (as many over-stressed individuals are), you can end up with twice as many fine lines and small wrinkles as you would if you were able to sleep seven hours per night.

In addition to having less time to produce collagen, when you don’t sleep as much, it can end up causing dry skin, which can not only be uncomfortable but cause the skin to look older, less healthy and more wrinkled as well. While topical products can help—this is not the same as helping your body produce more collagen.

Glowing Complexion

Glowing, healthy looking skin can help you look younger, more refreshed and more beautiful. However, it is a very hard look to achieve, especially as we grow older. The key to a glowing complexion is having blood flow to the skin, which will give you that healthy, rosy, glow. When we sleep, we give our body the chance to recover and recuperate and to send blood to areas of the body that need it the most—especially your face.

If you have ever skipped on a night of sleep and woken up to find your complexion looking tired, ashen or washed out—it is likely because your face wasn’t getting the positive blood flow it needed. Simply put, lack of sleep leads to lack of blood flow. If you get that magical 7-9 hours of sleep per night, you can wake up with a fresh glow, bright skin and rosy cheeks.

Eye Appearance

There is nothing that can make you look tired and groggy quite like your eyes—and there is nothing that impact your appearance quite like your eyes either. If you have been burning the candle on both ends, and not getting enough sleep at night, one of the first areas you will see it is around your eyes. Most people end up getting heavy bags, dark circles or all over puffiness around the eyes.

Plus, as we age, we tend to get those fine lines in the delicate skin around the eyes as well, which can instantly cause anyone to look older than they are. Getting enough sleep is any easy way to have less puffiness around your eye. We already know that getting enough sleep can help with collagen production and therefore the wrinkles we tend to get around the eyes, but it will also help with the dark circles and bags as well.

If you really are struggling with dark circles, bags and wrinkles, one of the best things you can do is to drink plenty of water, especially before bed, and sleep with your head propped up higher than normal. This will help reduce that swelling and puffiness and help you wake up looking more refreshed.

Fuller Hair

Many of the benefits of getting beauty sleep have to do with your complexion—but your hair will also see some great benefits when you get enough rest at right. Lack of sleep can lead to hair damage and breakage. In some more extreme cases, people can suffer from hair loss and a lack of hair growth when they don’t get enough sleep.

Your hair starts growing from your hair follicles, which get the nutrients they need from blood flow. When blood flows to their hair follicles, they can get the minerals and blood they need to flow and positive blood flow will actually stimulate positive hair growth.

However, when the hair is getting fewer nutrients and less blood flow, it can really impact its ability to grow and can even leave the hair brittle and more damaged looking. If you really aren’t getting enough sleep, it can also increase your stress levels, which everyone knows can have a negative impact on your health—and even cause hair loss. Simply put, if you want to keep your healthy, shiny, beautiful hair give yourself a few more hours to sleep at night.

Healthier Appearance

When you see someone at work who clearly hasn’t gotten enough sleep the night before, chance are, you can tell. They may have dark circles under their eyes, they may look swollen, red or puffy. They can also have sagging eyelids, or even a sagging mouth that makes you look more tired. Lack of sleep can cause you to look sad or angry without you knowing it, it can cause you to look pale and sickly as well. If you want to look happy and healthy (and who doesn’t) then getting some extra zzz’s at night can really help.

If you don’t think it will make that big of a difference, take a picture of yourself in the morning after getting six hours of sleep, and then again after getting eight hours. Just a few extra hours of sleep can help you look healthier than ever!

Products Work Better

Most people have a night time beauty routine that involves washing their face and using different facial (and hair) products. The reason there are so many different nighttime products is because this is when the potent potions tend to work the best. When you are sleeping, your body has nothing else to do but to focus on repairing itself.

It doesn’t have to defend itself from the elements or focus on moving or thinking—it can just focus on repairing itself. At this time, blood flow tends to be more consistent as well. All of these things help your body absorb and utilize the things that you are putting on your skin and that are being absorbed through your pores.

If you want to get the most of the products you are investing in as part of your skincare routine—then make sure you are getting enough sleep at night—it will truly help you make the most of them.

Sleep Mask

If you really want to make the most of your beauty sleep, you can do more than just put your normal evening products on your skin—you can try new sleep masks out instead. Sleep masks are one of the biggest and latest crazes in the beauty industry as they take advantage of your beauty sleep time and are designed to work with your skin over that 7-9 hour period when it is working on restoring and repairing itself.

Sleep masks are meant to be applied right before bed and washed off when you wake up in the morning. The great thing about these sleep masks is that they are designed to be a type of layer on top of the skin that hold or seal in products so that anything laying underneath that seal will penetrate better.

This is a great way to make sure that when your body is absorbing, restoring and pumping blood at its highest level that you are really making sure it is getting everything it needs to look its best. If you have never tried a sleep mask before, this may be a great new addition to your nighttime routine and a great way to take your beauty sleep up to the next level.

Look Healthy and Beautiful With A Few Hours of Beauty Sleep

A great beauty routine is an important way to help anyone feel and look their best. While creams, lotions and treatments can be effective and can help you in certain ways, there is no replacement for a good night’s sleep. Changing up your routine to make sure that you can get 7-9 hours of sleep per night can make all of the difference in your beauty regimen—and it can help you feel better too.

So, if you have been trying all of these topical treatments and finding that you simply aren’t seeing the results that you wish you were, go ahead and give beauty sleep a try. Adding just a few hours of sleep per night will not only help you feel healthy from the inside, but look healthy and beautiful from the outside as well.

Lisa Czachowski is a professional social blogger and has worked on several online publications including Citrus Sleep. Lisa is an experienced content writer and copyeditor. You will find many of her works throughout CitrusSleep.com that cover a wide array of subjects including sustainability, natural, sleep products, health, fashion and many more. She is passionate about what providing as much information as possible on products you bring in your home and what we wear.

Follow Lisa at Lisa Czachowski