Want your inner beauty to radiate outward? Want to dazzle the people around you? Get some shut-eye.
What? Get more sleep?
How boring. How last century.
Being told to get more sleep might seem like the beauty advice you'd have heard -- and very likely shrugged off -- from an older, more sensible (to the young female mind, read "stodgy" instead of "sensible") relative. Maybe your grandmother, or a spinster aunt.
That advice may sound like it falls into the same category as "Always tuck a tissue up in your sleeve, you never know when you'll have to blow your nose." Or maybe this one -- "Eat your vegetables, they're good for you."
Yeah right. I can hear you now, I can see you rolling your eyes. I know. I did the same thing way back in the day.
But this has got some interesting science to back it up now.
And really. Who couldn't do with a little more sleep?
According to a December 16, 2010 article on Sciencedaily.com, and a December 14, 2010 Eurekalert! public release on the same topic, research from the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden has examined sleep in relation to health and beauty.
Photographs of participants who were sleep deprived and others who were not were taken for the study. The people who evaluated the photos did not know which of the subjects had been getting plenty of sleep and which ones were not well-rested.
But they read the signals in the faces anyway. The tired folk were judged as being less healthy and less attractive, and the rested participants were deemed to be in better health and better looking.
The study was reported in the December, 2010 issue of the British Medical Journal website.
More recent research indicated that if you don't get enough sleep on a regular basis, your health can suffer and so can your looks.
An August 31, 2011 article on Self.com reported on some of the effects of getting enough sleep. While you are sleeping, skin repairs are underway.
Your leptin and ghrelin (hunger hormones) are in better balance when you get sufficient sleep. When those hunger hormones are in good working order, your metabolism is more efficient and you are less likely to put on unwanted weight and more able to achieve weight loss.
You stand taller, your eyes are brighter, unmarred by dark circles or bags from too little sleep. Your mood is better, your thoughts clearer and you are on your A game when you are well-rested.
Being alert and responsive is always attractive, and you aren't going to be able to pull that off for very long if you're not getting enough sleep at night.
Sources:
The Key to Being Attractive (and Looking Healthy)? A Good Night's Sleep
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/12/101214201530.htm
How Much 'Beauty Sleep' You Really Need
http://www.self.com/health/blogs/healthyself/2011/08/how-much-beauty-sleep-you-real.html
The key to being attractive (and looking healthy)? A good night's sleep
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-12/bmj-tkt121310.php
Visit Jody's website and blog at http://www.ncubator.ca and http://ncubator.ca/blogger
Reviewed September 26, 2011
by Michele Blacksberg RN