All sounds pretty familiar to me! When I was younger I never had any problems going to sleep and staying that way. These days though it doesn’t take much to wake me up, I often need a wee, have to let the cat out of the room, start thinking about my shopping list or what I need to do in my business. And don’t mention the MENOPAUSE!! I worry about the kids, the husband, the parents, the house, the car, oh and the planet. In other words, I don’t always sleep that well. I’m also not very good at taking care of myself so often fall into bed exhausted after having applied Sleep Balm to everyone else’s feet and not my own! I am 100% sure that I am not alone.
I know when I’ve had a bad run because I get dark circles under my eyes and my skin is not happy, often becoming more sensitive and aggravated.
Why is this?
Lack of sleep causes the stress hormone, Cortisol, to be released. This leads to inflammation all over the body, including the skin, causing acne, eczema and psoriasis.
The National Sleep Foundation recommends an adult should get between 7 and 9 hours sleep a night, which is not as easy as it sounds! However, if you are getting less than this on a fairly regular basis then you may start to notice wrinkles, dark circles and bags under your eyes. Your immune system may suffer as well.
So how do we help ourselves?
- Try to get more sleep: if you find you’re going to bed later and later, then try and shift your schedule forward 15 mins every few days until you’re in a better routine.
- Shut off all technology at least half an hour before bed. Electronic devices emit a blue light that suppresses the release of the sleep hormone, melatonin. Try reading a good book instead of watching tv or looking at your phone.
- Create a healthy evening routine for your skin: Make sure you treat your skin kindly by removing all your makeup – try using our Oat & Mandarin Cleanser, which is full of lovely ingredients to soothe and soften your skin. Follow with our Nourishing facial oil which will replenish lost moisture and help to repair skin cells overnight.
- Create a calm bedroom: Keep your bedroom cool to avoid over-heating, treat yourself to lovely cotton bedding and view your bedroom as a sanctuary!
- Try meditation: it’s affordable and easily accessed and has been shown to not only improve quality of sleep but also to ease anxiety, which can become more pronounced through lack of sleep. I love the sleep app CALM, lovely people read you bedtime stories.
- Exercise: Make exercise part of your daily routine and you’ll soon notice more restful sleep. Any kind of physical activity increases the time you spend in DEEP SLEEP, the most restorative sleep phase. It has also been shown to have a positive effect on stress and anxiety.
So let’s all make a pact to get better sleep! I now have my very own tube of Sleep Balm next to my bed that no one else is allowed to touch and I treated myself to some lovely new bedding in colours I really like. My phone goes off at 9.30pm and my cats are now banished! The husband gets to stay though :)
Take care and let me know how you get on,
Love
