All women probably agree on one thing: there’s nothing better than a good night’s rest. The deep sleep and the hours of unconscious relaxation are not only essential to your well-being but contribute significantly to your overall appearance. While sleeping is vital to your health and how you look, there are ways to increase the goodness that comes with a few zzz’s. Inexpensive and easy to do, these respective products and activities will leave you feeling and looking refreshed as soon as tomorrow morning.

Brightening Mask

Your grandmother’s favorite beauty brand takes it to the next level with this gel-based mask. The Olay Regenerist Luminous Overnight Mask ($25.99-$33.99) contains firming vitamin B3 and brightening mulberry extract to reveal brighter, smoother skin over time. Fans of the mask love its light, non-greasy consistency. The best part: you can get this baby at your local drugstore.

Satin Pillowcase

You know you’re supposed to change your pillowcase regularly to keep your skin clean and clear, but you probably don’t know that your cotton threads aren’t doing your skin or hair any favors. Sleeping on a satin pillowcase will allow your face to move freely without pulling, therefore preventing sleep lines that can lead to wrinkles over time. Also, satin pillowcases don’t absorb the good natural oils in your hair, so your locks stay smooth and shiny throughout the night.

DIY Leave-in Hair Mask

You’ve tried a DIY face mask, but the same ingredients that you use on your skin, like olive oil, are fantastic for hair as well. To defrizz hair and up the shine factor, take a ½ cup of extra virgin olive oil and comb the oil from the roots to the ends of your locks. Cover your head in a shower cap (Plastic wrap also works in a pinch.) and take your nightly snooze. When you wake up, shampoo hair and condition. The antioxidants and vitamins in olive oil will leave your hair smoother and shinier. Repeat once every 1-2 weeks or as needed.

Exercises before Bed

Though it may seem counterintuitive, exercising before bed can actually help you fall into a deeper sleep. Plus, you’ll keep burning calories, even while you’re dozing off. We like these simple moves for the upper body from dating and lifestyle guru Laurel House. The best part: you can do them from the comfort of your bed.

Still worried a nighttime workout will keep you up? Try drinking green tea (You can add a natural sweetener like agave nectar if you want.) before bed. Green tea has natural relaxing agents and boosts your metabolism, among other body benefits. Along with your cup of tea, try a short yoga session, like this one from yogi Adriene Mishler. You’ll get a good workout and be relaxed and ready for some serious slumber.

The post Sleeping Beauty: Get More Beauty Benefits from Your Slumber appeared first on AKAMom Magazine.

Do you remember the last time you got the doctor-recommended eight hours of uninterrupted sleep and woke up feeling refreshed, spry and perhaps looking younger than you did before turning out the lights the night before? Our guess is it’s been awhile.  It’s easy to get distracted after crawling into bed and trying to unwind; getting caught up on what happened in your social sphere while you were working your butt off all day, or flipping on the TV to lighten the load of shows currently building up in your DVR.  Don’t feel bad, it happens to the best of us.

But it’s a bad habit for those who are concerned about maximizing their beauty sleep. Yes, we said it. Beauty sleep. It’s a real thing, and it’s time to start achieving it. Because bottom line, sleep is nature’s most powerful (and free!) beauty treatment.

Waking up with bags and dark circles under your eyes, dull skin, discoloration and even acne can all be signs that you’re skimping on some serious shut-eye. While sleeping, your skin begins to revitalize and rejuvenate itself, generating human growth hormone – a vital ingredient for collagen production.  Your entire body, including your skin, goes into repair mode.

It’s truly amazing what our body undergoes as we drift off to slumber. For instance, the body’s hydration rebalances, which is what allows skin to recover moisture.  During this time, excess water is processed for removal. Everything seems to effortlessly go back to square one.  However, lack of sleep causes blood vessels to dilate due to water retention, which is what ultimately causes the unsightly appearance of dark circles, wrinkles and excessive dryness. But that’s not all.

“When you don’t get good sleep, your body become prone to acne and inflammatory breakouts and accelerate aging,” states Kristen Ma, co-owner of Pure + Simple Inc. and author of Beauty Pure and Simple: The Ayurvedic Approach to Beautiful Skin. As an Ayurvedic practitioner and esthetician who has mastered the subject of holistic beauty, Ma has an enlightened approach to health and wellness, especially pertaining to the importance of sleep.

“Without ample sleep, the body finds it difficult to heal the stress and damage the day has put on your skin and tissues. Whatever energy you have goes into maintenance, and when all your reserves are used, you crash, becoming vulnerable to disease. But besides the detriment that a lack of sleep causes your overall health, it also has a direct effect on your complexion.”

The fact that skin ages faster when lack of sleep is prevalent is what researchers for Estée Lauder found in their commissioned clinical trial a few years ago. Physician-scientists at University Hospital Case Medical Center studied 60 pre-menopausal women between the ages of 30 and 49, half of which fell into the poor quality sleep category.

Researchers evaluated the women’s skin, conducting a variety of tests and skin challenges, finding those who didn’t experience good sleep patterns exhibited more signs of skin aging, including uneven pigmentation, reduced skin elasticity and an increase in fine lines.

In a related press release, Dr. Daniel Yarosh, a senior vice president for Estée Lauder Companies, stated, “This research shows for the first time, that poor sleep quality can accelerate signs of skin aging and weaken the skin’s ability to repair itself at night. These connections between sleep and skin aging, now supported with solid scientific data, will have a profound effect on how we study skin and its functions.”

Sleep isn’t just for a youthful-looking face, however. People who suffer from chronic sleep problems have a much higher rate of developing a number of diseases and conditions, including depression, obesity, heart disease and diabetes, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).  Studies have also shown that lack of sleep impacts cognitive performance and memory.

So before you go out and buy the latest and greatest moisturizers and serums that boast the miraculous ability to turn back the hands of time that are showing up on your face, just remember that a few extra z’s is among one of the best methods to achieving glowing, youthful skin and a healthy mind, body and spirit.

The post The Truth about Sleep and Your Skin appeared first on AKAMom Magazine.