Real beauty sleep entails a lot more than crashing on the couch or sleeping on a cheap, lumpy pillow. There is a lot more to beauty sleep than you may have been led to believe. When done right, your sleep has a positive effect on your appearance, specifically on your skin.
Beauty sleep involves getting a night of quality sleep while giving your body the tools it needs to repair and replenish your body. There are certain things you may be doing each night that could potentially be damaging to your beauty sleep and causing you wrinkles and fine lines. And just as there are things that you may be doing, there could also be things you are not doing.
To help you make the most of your beauty sleep, here are three proven ways you can wake up looking younger:
- Use a firm buckwheat pillow to prevent wrinkles
It has been dubbed as “pillow face”. You know when you wake up in the morning an see crease marks from your pillow? Well, theses wrinkles you see each morning could become permanent. If you sleep on your side with your face against your pillow, you could be creating more wrinkles as you sleep. Although it may not seem fair – it’s true.
According to Renee Rouleau, celebrity aesthetician, sleeping is the second most prominent cause of wrinkles. She says that “after sunlight and UV exposure, squishing your face into a pillow for approximately 2500 hours per year is like ironing wrinkles into the skin”.
The pressure and friction that is created when you are pressed up against your pillow can cause creases in your skin. When you wake up in the morning, you may notice these fold lines are more visible and then appear to fade as the morning goes on. However, each night these folds and creases are repeatedly enforced and ultimately become permanent impressions on your face. This is exacerbated by certain types of materials and pillows that offer little oxygen flow or support.
So, yes - your pillow could be giving your wrinkles. Synthetic, cotton, and down-filled pillows won’t help with beauty sleep. A firm buckwheat pillow, on the other hand, can help reduce wrinkles. It’s been referred to as the “anti-aging pillow,” and there are several reasons why.
A firm buckwheat pillow is filled with buckwheat hulls. These are organic, natural, very supportive, and conform to the shape of your face and neck. Due to the design and supportive nature of the buckwheat hulls, this pillow properly aligns your head and neck with your body.
So, how does this affect your skin? When you are not correctly aligned, fluid and fat can accumulate in your face, which can cause puffiness and wrinkles. A supportive, firm buckwheat pillow will increase lymph drainage, leaving you looking refreshed and without the puffy face. It also works because it does a better job of confirming to your face, so it won’t cause your skin to wrinkle up against your pillow. The buckwheat hulls decrease your overall contact with the pillow as there are air gaps formed with the hulls, which reduce pressure on your face.
In addition to proper alignment, a firm buckwheat pillow will keep you cool. Body temperature is very important at night, and a pillow that traps in heat and bacteria will cause blemishes. Most traditional pillows don’t allow for airflow, which retains body temperature. This will not only raise your temperature but can also disrupt your sleep. Buckwheat hulls have a natural cooling effect as air is able to travel freely through the pillow. This prevents the temperature build-up and will keep you cool and your skin blemish-free.
One of the easiest things you can do to help with wrinkles is to swap out your pillow for a firm buckwheat pillow. Not only will your skin look better, but you will feel better in the morning.
Using a satin or silk pillowcase on top will also help as this material can reduce the creases and imprints made in your skin.
- Get enough sleep by taking Magnesium Glycinate
To enhance the wrinkle-reducing benefits of your firm buckwheat pillow, you need to ensure you are getting enough sleep every night. If you have difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep at night, you could be accelerating the physical effects of aging. Research has shown that a lack of sleep could cause wrinkles, and quality sleep can make you look younger.
According to Patricia Wexler, MD, and a dermatologist in New York, only getting 5 hours of sleep at night can lead to twice as many fine lines as 7 hours of sleep a night would.
In 2017 a study found that just two nights of sleep restriction negatively affected the person's perceived attractiveness. A lack of sleep will result in skin that wrinkles, doesn’t recover from environmental stressors, and overall more inferior quality. Further research found that just one night of poor sleep could cause swollen eyes, paler skin, dark undereye circles, more wrinkles, and fine lines, hanging eyelids, and droopy corners of the mouth. And that’s just with one night of poor sleep!
To consistently get a better night’s sleep, you can take a magnesium glycinate supplement. Magnesium is one of the most important nutrients in our body, and yet the majority of Americans aren’t getting enough. A deficiency in magnesium is increasingly prominent, with some research suggesting that 75% of Americans are deficient in the mineral. Not only will specific diets reduce your intake, but stress can further deplete your magnesium levels.
Magnesium is essential for your sleep. It activates the parasympathetic nervous system, which gets you into a calm and relaxed state. It also regulates the sleep hormone melatonin, which is responsible for sleep-wake cycles. Further, magnesium binds to gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) receptors which are responsible for quieting nerve activity. This is the same neurotransmitter used by sleep drugs. Research has shown that not having a sufficient amount of magnesium can result in difficulty sleeping and insomnia.
Magnesium also improves your quality of sleep. Several studies have examined the effect of magnesium and sleep quality and found that by taking a daily magnesium glycinate supplement, the participants experienced improved sleep quality.
Magnesium glycinate has a variety of benefits, including improving sleep quality. It helps with anxiety and stress (which also causes wrinkles), reduces pain, and helps maintain normal heart rhythms. In turn, by taking a magnesium glycinate supplement, you could get a better night's rest and wake up looking younger.
- Give your body the nutrients it needs with a multi vitamin
A link between nutrition and skin aging has been the topic of several studies. Maintaining a healthy diet rich in vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants can slow the signs of aging and boost the effects of our beauty sleep. Several vitamins can benefit your skin.
- Vitamin C has been found to help protect skin from harmful UV rays and decrease cell damage. Vitamins C also helps with wrinkles as it aids in the body’s natural collagen production.
- Vitamin E absorbs harmful UV light from the skin and minimizes UV damage, preventing wrinkles and dark spots. Vitamin E also treats skin inflammation and can prevent dryness.
- Vitamin K aids in blood clotting and can affect the skin in several ways. It helps skin conditions such as dark spots, undereye circles, spider veins, and stretch marks.
The benefit of vitamins and minerals is two-fold. They help your skin directly and also affects your quality of sleep, which impacts your skin. Vitamin D, B Vitamins, Calcium and Potassium, and Vitamin E all play a role in sleep. If you are not getting enough, you could jeopardize your quality of sleep.
Drinking enough water and taking a multivitamin are the surest ways to provide your body with enough vitamins and minerals to protect, repair, and enhance the appearance of your skin. Even with a diet containing plenty of fruits and vegetables, you may not be getting the nutrients you need. The soil on many farms is heavily depleted, and many of the ways our fruits and veggies are prepared make our diet less nutritious. An excellent multi vitamin supplement will ensure you are getting everything you need in addition to a healthy diet.
Countless topical treatments claim to help with wrinkles. Although they may provide some temporary improvement, wrinkles occur on a deeper level. Even the best creams in the world won’t replace a good night’s sleep, a firm buckwheat pillow, and a sufficient amount of vitamins and minerals.
If you want help with wrinkles and reduce the fine lines and creases you see in the mirror each morning, it’s time to level up your beauty sleep tool kit and get yourself a quality multivitamin, a magnesium glycinate supplement and a firm buckwheat pillow. With these three items, you will be the real sleeping beauty.