LOOKING GOOD - December 16, 2015

*-- How To Get Your Beauty Sleep --*
No matter how much we may try to resist it, sleep is an important part of life. But with lives that are full of a lot of stress, thoughts, and demands of our time and attention, it can be hard to get that beauty sleep that we so desperately need. If you find yourself awake and reading this at 4am on a Tuesday morning, you have come to the right place to initiate the changes to your sleep behaviors and patterns that have been interfering with your beauty sleep.

Make a Schedule
The best thing that you can do for yourself is to set up a schedule for yourself, and to stick with it. This means that the schedule you keep during the week days should be kept during the weekend, especially if you are having difficulties sleeping. So if your "bed time" on weekdays is around 10 or 10:30pm, this should be maintained throughout the weekend. If you happen to fall asleep at 10pm on the weekend, it can be presumed that you will wake up around 6 or 7am. Now if you decided to have a wild night out on the weekend and stay up until 1 or 2pm, chances are you will sleep in until 11am or noon. This will significantly interfere with your week-day sleep pattern and may cause insomnia and restless nights.

Don't Eat before Bed
One of the worst things you can do for yourself is eating before bed. If you have a full tummy before you go to bed at night, then your inner body will be awake and working at processing and digesting that food. This often is enough to keep even the heaviest and easiest of sleepers awake. As a rule, do not eat for 3 hours prior to hitting the bed so as to not interrupt your sleep with the noises and sensations of digestion.

Look at what you're Eating
If you do find that you are suddenly having issues sleeping, take a look at your diet. Are you consuming more caffeinated beverages, such as coffees, teas and sodas than you were previously? Are you eating foods that are loaded in sugars or carbohydrates that are making your blood sugar yo-yo?

If you do happen to feel hungry before bed, it is recommended that you try to stick to foods that have a high level of "tryptophan". Milk, yogurt, ice cream, yogurt, tuna, soy beans and peanuts all have this nutrient which helps our body produce serotonin, a hormone that helps us relax and feel sleepy.

Get Comfortable
All too many of us try to sleep uncomfortably each night. If this is you, start experimenting with different positions to try to go to sleep. You don't want to use a flat pillow as this will cause your head to tilt down towards the mattress. You also don't want your head to be propped at an angle either. Choose pillows that will keep your head level to the mattress but not dipping towards or away from it either.

If you experience lower body pain, place a pillow between your knees. This has become such an issue that specific pillows have been manufactured for this purpose alone.

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