BEAUTY SLEEP IS REAL, HERE'S HOW TO GET IT

September 07, 2020

There’s nothing like the feeling of waking up refreshed, energized, and ready to take on your day. We finally got permission with quarantine to stay home and rest after years of being on-the-go, but many of us couldn’t. Whether from the stress of being worried about our income, worried about our businesses, worried about family members and friends, and then worried about our own personal health - the anxiety levels have peaked and kept us up at night. 

One of the most important factors in our healthy habits for sanity and our immune system is GOOD SLEEP. Sleep deprivation has been linked to immune system failure, diabetes, cancer, obesity, depression, and memory loss. Just sleeping poorly for one night can result in faster aging of your skin, storing extra body fat, and your body being as insulin-resistant as that of a type-2 diabetic.   

If you’re tossing and turning, or waking up feeling like you could just go back to bed, here are some tips and tricks you should try to see if your sleep improves. 

 

TOP SLEEP TIPS      

10 Life-Long Good Sleep Habits for Your Evening Routine: 

1. SCREENS & STRESSORS : Stop all media consumption 90 minutes before bed. The artificial “blue” light emitted by electronic screens trigger your body to produce more daytime hormones.
2. Temperature : Thermoregulation is strongly linked to good sleep. Look into sleeping in more breathable fabrics or covers. Sleeping naked has been linked to better sleep as well. The ideal room temperature for sleep is around 68 degrees Fahrenheit. Anything above 75 or below 54 will likely cause some difficulty sleeping.
3. Caffeine Cutoff : Stop drinking caffeine by 2 pm, It takes the average human, approximately eight hours to digest a half of the caffeine they've consumed that day.
4. Quarantine Cocktail Cutoff : 2 hours before bed. REM sleep is disrupted when you drink alcohol. Not only will your brain and body not be able to rejuvenate, your short-term memories and experiences are supposed to be converted into long-term memories but alcohol disrupts your memory processing stages.  Alcohol also inhibits reaching stage 3 and 4 sleep where your body supports your immune system.
5. Create a sleep sanctuary - Make your bedroom a designated area for the 4R’s : relaxation, rest, recharging, & romance. Make it comfortable. Don’t bring media or work to bed with you. Try charging crystals and put them in your bedroom. Our CEO & founder Serena Poon has a line of her favorite crystals, candles, and an aura cleansing mist that could be a part of your night time routine. 
6. Wake up at the same time - waking up at the same time is more important than getting to bed at the same time every night because you want your circadian rhythm to be consistent. 
7. Late Night Snack - If you need to have something to eat before you go to bed (90 minutes) then have a high protein low-carb snack - like Just Add Water. Having a carbohydrate rich snack before going to bed will spike and then drop your blood sugar causing you to wake up in the middle of the night. 
8. Meditation - If you struggle with turning off your brain at night - you keep repeating the stressful things you were worried about or even can’t stop brainstorming exciting ideas - try meditating both during the day and have a night time meditation. 
9. Know Your Levels - Magnesium, Melatonin, Vitamin D, & Iron Levels - Magnesium is an essential nutrient for rest is also the #1 mineral deficiency amongst people in our world today. Magnesium is vital for decreasing stress and for your gut-health. Make sure you take a high-quality magnesium supplement if you don’t get it through magnesium rich foods (spinach, pumpkin seeds, tofu, dark chocolate, bananas, almonds, coconut, okra, brown rice, chia seeds)  Vitamin D - your best source is a healthy dose of sunlight, especially in the morning right when you wake up. Try getting blood tests to see if you’re deficient in any of these minerals and then add high-quality supplementation if needed.
10. Aromatherapy Epsom Salt Bubble Baths - Having a hot 15 minute bath at night 90 minutes before bed can help reduce insomnia because it cues your brain to induce melatonin production. Add lavender and epsom salt for self-care and extra health benefits. 

 

 

SLEEP & IMMUNITY

Not only does not getting good sleep make you more susceptible to viruses, it also makes it more difficult for your body to recover. Getting restful, restorative sleep helps support our immune system’s incredible functions. During sleep your immune system releases proteins that are called cytokines, inflammatory agents that go to the site of infection, but also actually help to promote your sleep quality. Production of these cytokines actually needs to increase when you have an infection or inflammation, and when you're stressed.

So, sleep deprivation can actually decrease the production of these protective cytokines and that's how you become more likely to suffer from an infection. Getting 7-9 hours of restful sleep allows for proper functionality of the cytokines and therefore a strong immune system! Make sure you get good sleep to keep your defense system working for you at its best.  

ALSO - Your killer-T cells, which are the white blood cells that fight viruses and infections, are produced during stages 3 & 4 of your sleep cycle.

STILL TIRED BUT SLEEPING WELL?

There’s such a thing as ‘leaky brain’? New research suggests that this is a THING. Our brains are protected by the “blood brain barrier” and the supportive glial cells - essentially the brain’s immune system. When glial cells sense inflammation, one of the first things they do is kind of open the gates of the blood brain barrier. New studies suggest that this occurrence, this leaky brain is associated with leaky-gut. When your gut is re-sealed, the brain fog, tiredness, aggravation, inability to focus, anxiety, and other markers of leaky brain disappear. 

Taking care of your gut-health with a daily product like Just Add Water can help seal the blood brain barrier and make you feel like you have the energy you earned in your sleep. 

CRYSTALS FOR BETTER SLEEP 

Clearing your space of unwanted energy can help achieve a good night’s rest. These stones can be charged with positive loving intention and then placed in all of the corners of the room - a process called “gridding” the room. 

Crystals like Lepidolite and Amethyst can be placed around it to absorb the peaceful vibrations. Rose Quartz calms emotions for peaceful sleep.Smoky Quartz grounds and protects from nightmares. Charoite can be used for irregular sleep patterns. Certain crystals like Black Tourmaline can aid in blocking energy from EMF's when placed on the floor under the bed and/or on a night table next to the bed. placed underneath the pillow where the energies of the stones will work with the aura to release the stress of the day. Selenite, Amethyst, and Blue Calcite would work very well for this intention. ⠀

BEAUTY SLEEP 

 

Sleeping Beauty may be a fairy tale, but ‘beauty sleep’ is not! We’ve heard that sleeping on your back helps reduce wrinkles (at least temporarily), but there’s some exciting science about beauty sleep that goes much deeper than that! Deep sleep actually reduces the negative effects of cortisol on your body. Early in your nighttime sleep cycle, during the deep sleep stages three and four, your body goes through a surge in growth hormone release. Growth hormone helps repair and rebuild body tissues like muscle and bone, but is also linked to skin health and rejuvenation of cells. Your body also repairs cell damage from stress and ultraviolet rays during this phase.

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