Cheap Beauty Treatment - Sleep

Hello, "Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise", this is the proverb my lovely Mom has drilled into my head since I was a small child.  As I grew older, I threw this practice out the door, completely ignored it, and developed some horrible sleeping patterns.  The worse part was at times it turned into INSOMNIA.  I despise this word with a passion!  I confess I need at least 8 hours of beauty sleep in order to function and look human the next day, and it is not always easy to do as I got older.  Here are some culprits that disrupt my night:

• Caffeine late in the day - it does not impact me every time, but it is best for me to avoid drinking my favorite cup of joe or milk tea late in the day.
• Light and noise - my significant other is a late owl and likes to catch the late night news or a movie after 11pm.  Unfortunately, the bedroom is right next to the living room and I am very sensitive to the light and noise.  I have to keep the bedroom's door completely closed off to block the light and the TV noise level. 
• Too much stimulation - I like to watch TV, surf the internet, and blog before bed.  I find that  it is best for me to take a long break after I do all of the above before bed.  Otherwise, my brain stays overly stimulated and active and I can't fall asleep.
• Eating too late and too much - this stimulates the digestive system and causes the body to stay awake because it stays hard at work.
• Sleep pattern - we all have an internal clock.  If  I go past my normal bed time one night, my body clock will be off and follow the next night.  So establishing a normal sleep pattern is very important to me.
• Stress- Last, but not least.  I accumulate stress from work during the day and it used to cause me to think and analyze too much while I was trying to sleep.  I have learned to detach myself from work by not checking work emails and not discuss work at home if possible.

Via Google images

As you know, lack of quality sleep can cause a host of mental and physical problems.  It can also affect our appearance.  In this CNN Health article, a team of Swedish researchers studied the correlation between sleep and beauty.  As quoted by the lead author of the study, "Sleep is a cheap and effective 'beauty treatment'".  It is interesting and so true, now go get a good night sleep! 

Until next post......