Getting Our Beauty Sleep
Turns out the notion of beauty sleep is not a fairy tale. There’s plenty of scientific research backing the recommendation of 7-9 hours of sleep for your skin’s health and although we can’t rearrange your busy schedule for you, we are here to help you get the best sleep you can while you rest and in turn a radiant glow each morning.
Here’s the skinny on sleeping sound and waking up with stunning skin.
Like you, team Wren & Wild is obsessed with our skincare routines. From our overflowing bathroom cabinets to our 10-step evening routines, there’s nothing quite like the feeling of healthy, glowing skin. Needless to say, it’s quite defeating to wake up less-than-refreshed in the morning, not to mention puffy or with dark circles under our eyes and creases on our face or chest. So what exactly is beauty sleep and how do we get it?
According to Healthline, the first thing we need to understand is that “sleep is the time when your body repairs itself. During sleep, your skin’s blood flow increases, and the organ rebuilds its collagen and repairs damage from UV exposure, reducing wrinkles and age spots.” We go from protection mode, against the elements we are exposed to during the day, into restore/repair mode.
Second, they remind us that the length of time our delicate skin is in contact with our pillowcase matters. “Think about it: Your face against rough, drying cotton for one-third of its existence could do a number on the appearance and health of your skin.” Let’s add to this the long-term effects of side sleeping on our neck and decollete.
Knowing a little bit about what’s going on in our body’s largest organ once we turn out the lights can help us to prepare our sleep routine, the products we use and turn beauty sleep into a reality.
Our Bedtime Routine
To the best of our ability, creating consistency around our sleep schedule is beneficial to our sleep health. Ideally, shutting down electronics and preparing our bodies and space happens around the same time each night and creates a ritual that we look forward to.
Magnesi-Om from Moon Juice is the perfect pre-bedtime cocktail to signal to the body it’s time for some rest. Team Moon Juice explains why. “Research shows that magnesium helps to regulate neurotransmitters, or the chemical messengers in the brain. Magnesium may also help with better sleep through its interaction with your nervous system. Magnesium can also play a larger role in relaxation, helping to reach a deeper level of quality sleep. A study found that participants who consumed 500 mg of Magnesium daily reported reduced insomnia, increased sleep quality, and improved early morning restfulness.”
Want to supercharge your relaxation response? Try a nighttime soak with Odacité’s Soul Soothe Bath Soak. Step into Zenitude! Or the restorative ritual of Osea’s Vagus Nerve Line, we’ve even got a travel set for you to get your beauty rest on the go.
Wash Your Face
Ask any team member and we will all agree that washing your face at night is the most important part of our skincare routine. You’re not just washing off sunscreen and makeup but also pollution, dirt and the energy of the day. This signals to your mind and body that the day is over and it’s time to repair and rejuvenate.
The dual cleanse is the nighttime ritual we all need. I love spending a couple of minutes massaging my skin with an oil makeup remover followed by a gentle cleanser to be sure I’m fully free of dirt and makeup but my skin is soft and smooth.
Try Fitglow Beauty's Makeup Cleansing Oil or The Melting Balm from Leland Francis for your first cleanse ritual.
Follow with Dr. Barbara Sturm’s Cleanser for pillowy soft clean skin or Vintner’s Daughter Active Renewal Cleanser which leaves the skin perfectly prepped for the hydration and moisture steps that follow.
Moisturize
To help accelerate the repair process products like retinol and retinol alternatives are great. I mean who doesn’t want to reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles while you sleep? Augustinus Bader’s The Retinol Serum is an effective fan favorite. But, we also want to make sure our skin is protected and stays hydrated while we snooze.
Our friends at Youth To The People weigh in on what the skin needs while we sleep; “While our bodies are efficient at repairing themselves, an extra boost doesn’t hurt. To help protect against overnight dehydration, we need a protective layer of hydrators and oils on the skin. We hit on four main hydrators in the Dream Mask: glycerin, a great topical humectant for pulling water from the environment towards our skin; betaine, a water reservoir that takes the water from glycerin deeper into the epidermis; hyaluronic acid, part of natural moisturizing factors that help the skin to uptake water during the regeneration process; and lastly, squalane, a non-comedogenic emollient that protects our skin from trans-epidermal water loss and locks in all that hydration, and these ingredients are great for all skin types.”
While You Sleep
It makes sense that the position you sleep in affects the condition of your skin given the ideal length we are doing it. Sleeping on our stomach can pool fluid in the face causing puffiness and sleeping on our side can cause lines and creases in our face, neck and chest increasing the appearance of aging skin. Here are a few beauty secrets that have us waking up with a youthful skip in our step.
Ditch the old dry cotton and switch to a luxurious satin pillowcase which is also a dream for your hair! Add a Sleep Eye Mask to increase the quality of sleep by reducing the light and keeping your skin in a place of deep relaxation all night.
Training ourselves to sleep on our backs can be challenging at first for those of us who love cradling a body pillow on our side at night. But the effects can be damaging to the appearance of the skin. Wrinkles Schminkles is here to the rescue for those of us who need a boost to keep our décolleté lines at bay. The Pads work by comfortably hugging your décolleté while preventing the delicate skin on your chest from being able to crease or wrinkle. At the same time, the décolleté pad supports the skin’s natural ability to hydrate the skin, while retaining moisture, increasing blood flow and helping to boost collagen production – that vital protein we lose as our skin ages.
These techniques are all Wren and Wild team tested and we’re big believers in the reality of getting our beauty zzzzz’s! Happy Sleeping.