HOW TO SLEEP BETTER
Sleep specialists are beginning to understand the importance of what goes on in the land of nod. And it’s far more than us busy modern humans have been giving it credit for. It’s easy for beauty sleep to slip down the agenda when we’re up all hours, battling for a better world. But lots of our body’s beautifying processes kick in during our sleep cycle, helping us look and feel ready for action in the morning. We could all benefit from understanding how to sleep better, so, here’s some snoozy sleeping tips and products to help you shine bright inside and out.
WHAT IS BEAUTY SLEEP?
Sleeping Beauty had the right idea, getting more than forty winks for a rejuvenating beauty sleep. Ever heard of your circadian rhythm? Nope, not a funky dance floor move. It’s your 24 hour internal clock known as your sleep-wake cycle. It’s rumoured adults need at least 7 hours and teens 9 hours of beauty sleep in order for our bodies to do all the behind-the-scenes work that helps us feel rested and looking bright-eyed and bushy tailed in the morning.
We lose up to an astonishing one litre of water a night as we doze, so drinking two litres a day helps keep our hydration reserves bountiful at night and assists the body’s hard work of beauty sleep. Top tip, don’t leave hydration to a mad water-drinking dash in the evening. You might wake up in the middle of the night for a pee – and interrupt all that brilliant beautification work. Given the right amount of sleep and hydration, our skin has a chance to wake up freshly plumped, and fingers crossed, with dark circles and sleepy bags banished by the sleep fairy.
The amazing benefits of beauty sleep extend to our hair too. We reckon Rapunzel with her famously long strong hair must have been getting in a good 7 hours plus. The increase of blood flow to our skin at night works for our hair follicles too. This rush of nutrients helps our luscious locks get the strong shiny look. But maybe ask any snoring friends to vacate your sleep palace when you need to turbo-boost your beauty sleep (just sayin’).
HOW TO GET A GOOD NIGHT'S SLEEP
SLEEPY SCENTS
Our sense of smell is in close contact with our brains and when we treat our nose to a smell it enjoys, it helps our brains slow down and prepare us for sleep. So instead of counting some less-than-fragrant sheep to help you sleep, spritz our delightful French Lavender Pillow Mist on your bedsheets or pillow to help you drift off.
TAKE A RELAXING BATH OR SHOWER
Many people experience a sense of peace and calm on visiting a spa or taking part in relaxing watery rituals. Here’s a good geeky fact – spa stands for sanus per aquam – Latin for health through water. So be a water baby and go large when it comes to your grown-up bathtime routine. We’ve created heavenly scented bath bombs, bath foam and bath milk to take your nose and skin to that special place. Science says that warm water, 90 minutes before bed, helps our body temperature get to its perfect sleepy place too. Sweet dreams everyone.
UNWIND BEFORE SLEEP WITH A SPA RITUAL OR MASSAGE
A good soak to soothe our senses, tick. You could up your sleep game even further by getting in touch with your self-love department. Touch is known to raise levels of a love hormone called oxytocin which helps us relax. So after a long lounge in the bath, continue your sensory sleep ritual with a snooze-inducing body massage with our sensuous oils and creams.
OVERNIGHT CARE FOR YOUR BEAUTY SLEEP
SERUM OIL TO RECHARGE SKIN WITH MOISTURE
Now it’s time to really up the beauty sleep ante with some of our nocturnally inspired products. First up, our mighty night owl, Vitamin E Overnight Serum-In-Oil. This 8-hour formula combines a nourishing oil infusion with the lightweight non-greasy action of a serum. So it helps you and your skin feel restored, radiant and fresh as a daisy – all in perfect harmony with your 8-hour beauty sleep schedule.
TEA TREE ANTI-IMPERFECTION NIGHT MASK TO HELP BATTLE BLEMISHES OVERNIGHT
And what if the sleep fairy could work a little overnight beauty magic on blemished skin too? Well, they can with some help from our carefully formulated Tea Tree Anti-Imperfection Night Mask. This blend of Community Fair Trade tea tree oil and salicylic acid works with your night skincare routine to help you wake up to clearer-looking skin.
RICH BODY BUTTER TO SOFTEN THE BODY DURING SLEEP
And now for a night-time body care routine that’ll help you float off into a deep slumber and give your body some overnight restoration of its own. Try a massage with our dreamy Spa of the World™ Japanese Camellia Cream. This rich body cream is infused with exquisite camellia oil and has a light velvety texture which leaves your skin feeling loved and divinely soft. This elegantly scented and gently hydrating oil has been in Japanese women’s sleepy self-love routine since the 8th century. Respect.
AROMATHERAPY WITH LAVENDER OIL
And now for the king of sleepy hacks, our Spa of the World™ French Lavender Massage Oil or as we like to softly say outloud in its native language, ‘huile de massage relaxante’ meaning ‘relaxing massage oil’. Lavender is widely known to be a smooth talker in sleep circles, helping to calm our senses. So add this velvet-tongued aroma oil into your night skincare routine and you could be asleep before your head touches the pillow.
HOW TO IMPROVE SLEEP QUALITY
Looking for advice on how to improve sleep quality? Drift off with us. We all know about the Princesses and the Pea, right? We know you’re more warrior than princess, but comfort is an essential companion along the path to the land of nod.
TIP 1 – UPGRADE YOUR BED
Your heroic head deserves a little luxury and silk pillowcases are fast becoming an essential part of snooze-smart people’s beauty sleep routine. They’re next-level soft and have a little night time secret of their own, they keep your skin more hydrated than their drier cotton counterparts. We have the perfect pillow partner for you – Drops of Youth™ Bouncy Sleeping Mask, enriched with three plant stem cells. This refreshing non-sticky formula gives tired eyes an instant lift and can be used as an overnight mask. So sweet dreams and here’s to waking up with skin that feels bouncier and more radiant.
TIP 2 – KEEP AN EYE ON WHAT YOU DRINK
A little tipple of an evening can help us feel relaxed and snoozy. But if you’re looking to deepen those zzz’s and get to truly restorative sleep, taking a break from alcohol or reducing what you drink before bed could be a good thing. Alcohol affects the type of sleep we get and can make us wake up earlier, so we don’t get the magical 7 hours. Alcohol is a diuretic too, which means we lose fluid through sweat and become dehydrated, so our youthful glow becomes less youthful. Eek.
TIP 3 – CLEAR YOUR MIND
With so many things to care about and so much to do, it's natural we’re busy people with busy minds. But when our brains refuse to switch off at bedtime, we need to take action. Quiet time for 2 hours before sleep – away from the glow of screens can help calm overactive minds. Soaking in the bath and giving yourself a massage with scented oils and creams will help slow your mind down too – giving it time to process the day. Or try a good meditation app to help you train your brain for sleep.
TIP 4 – PROJECT MANAGE YOUR SLEEP SCHEDULE
Remember those funky circadian rhythms? That’s your 24-hour sleep-wake cycle, and whilst we’re all a bit different – from night owls to early birds, there are a couple of easy wins that can help us all go with the sweet-dreams flow. The biorhythms that control when we feel sleepy and alert like regular sleep habits. So that means committing to going to bed and waking up at similar times each day. Uh huh, keep spontaneity at bedtime for special occasions! Signing off at night with a relaxing night oil, and welcoming the day with one of our zesty-scented shower gels, might just put a spring in your step too.