How to Take Your Beauty Sleep to the Next Level
We aren’t sure why Prince Charming was in such a rush to wake Sleeping Beauty from her slumber—a few extra hours of shut-eye never hurt. They call it beauty sleep for a reason. A good night’s sleep can result in brighter skin, fewer wrinkles, less puffy eyes and healthier hair. But since most of us can’t take a quick hundred year nap like Sleeping Beauty, we have to make the most out of the time we’ve got. There are ways you can sneak your beauty routine into your sleep time, which means you can hit snooze without jeopardizing your primping.
Mask It
After you wash your face and go about your normal skincare routine, slather on a thick overnight moisturizing mask like Kiehl’s Ultra Facial Overnight Hydrating Masque ($35) or Olay Active Botanicals Overnight Moisture Mask ($15). This extra dose of moisture will keep your skin soft, moisturized and glowing come morning time. Feel free to skip the highlighter, you won’t need it.
Style While You Sleep
Don’t ever wake up with a bad hair day again. With a little product and prep work you can wake up with perfect hair. Take damp hair and a smoothing product like Living Proof Perfect Hair Day Night Cap Overnight Perfector ($27) and evenly apply throughout your hair. Then to create natural looking waves, either do a braid or twist your hair into little buns. When you wake up, undo your hair and you’re ready to go.
Use The Right Pillowcase
You can make your skin and hair look drastically better just by sleeping on the right pillowcase. Your average cotton and polyester pillowcases can pull at and suck moisture from your skin and hair throughout the night. This means frizz in the morning and wrinkles down the line. By using a silk pillowcase your skin slides on the pillow, reducing wrinkle causing tugging and frizz causing friction. Once you start using a silk pillowcase, you can rest easy knowing you will wake up with smoother hair and skin.
Get Enough Sleep
The easiest thing you can do to get true beauty sleep is this: Get enough sleep! No matter what you do, if your body isn’t getting the rest it needs, your appearance will show the signs. The National Sleep Foundation now recommends that both younger and older adults—anyone from 18 to 64 years old—sleep an average of 7 to 9 hours each night.