You know how important good nutrition and exercise are for your health and beauty, but do you know sleep is crucial too? When you doze you’re getting more than rest. Sleep researchers say your body is healing and repairing itself. For this reason, dermatologists often suggest using your most “active” skin creams before bed. To avoid puffy, bloodshot eyes, dark under-eye circles and a pale washed-out complexion — and for peak alertness and energy — experts say you need eight hours of sleep a night.
Here are some tips to help you get the sleep you need:
- Listen to white noise or relaxation CDs. Some people find the sound of
white noise or nature sounds, such as the ocean or forest, to be soothing for sleep.
- Avoid before-bed snacks, particularly grains and sugars. This will raise blood sugar and inhibit sleep. Later, when blood sugar drops too low (hypoglycemia), you might wake up and not be able to fall back asleep.
- Exercise every day. Even 20 minutes of walking can help keep stress hormones from interfering with your sleep.
- Get to bed as early as possible. Our systems, particularly the adrenals, do a majority of their recharging or recovering during the hours of 11 p.m. and 1 a.m. In addition, your gallbladder dumps toxins during this same period. If you are awake, the toxins back up into the liver which then secondarily back up into your entire system and cause further disruption of your health. Prior to the widespread use of electricity, people would go to bed shortly after sundown, as most animals do, and which nature intended for humans as well.
- Minimize light, noise and temperature extremes; your bedroom should be comfortably cool, about 68 degrees.
- No TV right before bed. Even better, get the TV out of the bedroom or even out of the house, completely. It is too stimulating to the brain and it will take longer to fall asleep. Also disruptive of pineal gland function for the same reason as above.
- Establish a bedtime routine. This could include meditation, deep breathing, using aromatherapy or essential oils or indulging in a massage from your partner. The key is to find something that makes you feel relaxed, then repeat it each night to help you release the day’s tensions.
- Wear an eye mask to block out light. As said above, it is very important to sleep in as close to complete darkness as possible. That said, it’s not always easy to block out every stream of light using curtains, blinds or drapes, particularly if you live in an urban area (or if your spouse has a different schedule than you do). In these cases, an eye mask can help to block out the remaining light.
