BEAUTY SLEEP

When I was putting this post together, I seriously debated taking some “sleeping” photos of myself. Then I thought about it, and basically every single photo you see of someone “sleeping” on the internet (if they look half decent while doing it) is a lie. They are fully awake and probably have a room full of people telling them which is a more flattering “sleeping” position. ANYWAYS, I decided to spare you guys the pain of fake sleeping photos of myself and share these old modeling pics instead. (I look totally natural, I’m aware.)

Okay back to the point of this post. BEAUTY SLEEP. You need it, I need it, we all need it. Quality and quantity of sleep have a direct effect on your physical and mental state of being. Nobody likes a cranky-pants, so don’t be that person. And, studies have shown that getting between 7 – 9 hours of sleep a night is a highly powerful beauty treatment! What?? You heard me. Get pretty by sleeping. (Sign. Me. Up.)

Here’s the skinny on beauty sleep:

• Smoother skin. While you sleep, your skin cells regenerate and muscles that cause wrinkles will relax. This will promote that beautiful wrinkle-free look. 
• A lack of sleep increases inflammatory cells in the body and leads to an increase in the breakdown of collagen. Collagen is one of the primary structural building blocks of your skin, and the more collagen you have the better your skin looks! Learn more here. 
• Not enough sleep actually accelerates the aging process. Don’t give you skin cells enough time to repair? Each day of sleep deprivation will cause your skin cells to slowly break down (and this effect accumulates over time.) Bad. News. Bears.
• Too little sleep contributes to weight gain. I always notice that when I am tired I eat more (and make poorer food choices) because I think I need the extra energy because my body is so exhausted from the lack of sleep.
• If you don’t get enough sleep your blood vessels dilate, which causes dark circles under your eyes to form.
• Too much sleep also has negative health effects! Anything over 9 hours can be just as detrimental to your skin as not enough sleep. Oversleeping increases skin cell breakdown.

As you can see there are so many reasons that you should set aside enough time to sleep at night! I am a huge baby when it comes to sleeping, and will literally be the grumpiest person ever if I am short on sleep for a night. Let me tell you… not pleasant for anyone involved haha. So let’s set aside those 7 – 9 hours a night, and sleep ourselves pretty! 

x,