On Mother's Day we get to focus on us. We spend our days and nights with our children, our work, and our partners at the top of the list. But one day of the year we get to choose us and what better time to spoil yourself a bit then at bedtime when the house is quiet and everyone is sound asleep. These bedtime beauty tricks will complete the perfect Mother's Day for you.
Forget botox and surgery. Simply changing the position of how you sleep can protect your skin of wrinkles. If you are a stomach or side sleeper it’s time to make a change and have gravity work in your skins favour. Roll over and start sleeping on your back. Sleeping on your face not only results in a puffier look but the constant sleep lines from your pillow, with time, begin to stick around. Sleeping on your back will give yourself a natural facelift while also sleeping in the best position for your backs alignment.
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Splurging on a silk pillowcase may not be ideal but if you are constantly battling frizzy hair and dry skin it may be a worthwhile investment. Why silk and not cotton? Besides being an ancient Chinese beauty secret, silk is less absorbent than cotton leaving your face freshly moisturized throughout the night and not stripping away your facial creams like your current cotton pillowcase. Silk itself, with mulberry charmeuse being the silk of choice, is known to be anti-aging containing natural proteins anti aging amino acids.
Added bonus! Kiss your frizz goodbye! Your hair won’t go through a night of rubbing and catching as it lays gently on your new smooth surface.
I get that life happens. You worked late, kids got sick, or you were binge watching Call the Midwife - if you haven’t yet seriously, do it. Your usual bedtime routine consists of dragging your butt to bed and you’re lucky if you have the energy to take off your makeup. Well we should all try to make an effort, at least 3 to 4 nights a week, where you create your own personal spa like setting - facials included - during your bedtime routine. Swap Netflix for a relaxing bath with your lavender oil while surrounded with candles and don’t ignore your skin health. When your body becomes overtired it becomes stressed, releasing the stress hormone cortisol. In excess amount, cortisol can break down skin collagen, which is the protein that keeps skin smooth and elastic.
So less sleep = more wrinkles.
If you can’t give your skin a sleep facial, keep your skin fresh and glowing with exfoliating regularly using a deep sonic cleanse product like my personal favourite the Clarisonic Plus, and moisturize, moisturize, moisturize! Our house likes to use the OURS Anything Balm because mom, dad, and children can use it for pretty much anything!
What if I told you that you could avoid gaining weight by sleeping more? Pretty awesome, right? Studies have shown us that sleeping and eating are linked and when we are sleep deprived we can have an increase in appetite and consume more calories and larger amounts of carbohydrates. Frequent sleep loss means that levels of the appetite-suppressing hormone, leptin decreases and can’t signal to the brain that you are full. Also when you feel tired you tend to crave sugar and lack of sleep can lead to insulin resistance and because your body can’t get the sugar out, it craves more sugar. This can be a leading cause in obesity, exhaustion, and even diabetes.
Tip! Stick to consistent sleep patterns with 7-8 hours of sleep nightly and maintain a healthy nutritional diet, and kick the meal shakes and fad diets to the curb!
Lastly don’t forget your mind needs a beauty rest too. Before bed each night focus on the positive and write down 3 positive things of your day. If you are worried or feeling stressed write them down to release them from your mind before you go to sleep.
So go ahead, get to bed with your sleep mask and earplugs and don’t forget to tell dad he needs to get up with the kids in the morning.
I provide free child and family sleep support on my Facebook page. I invite you to join our sleep community as I work towards Good Night Sleep Site's mission of a healthier rested family unit. For more sleep tips please visit Good Night Sleep Site.
It’s the time of year where we de-clutter, clean, and purge all that’s accumulated throughout the winter.
Have you thought about also giving your sleep a Spring clean? Sometimes our sleep routine and environment needs a little sprucing up too, so while you’re windexing the windows, give thought to what needs to be done in the bedroom.
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It’s easy to let your sleep routine slide so it’s a good idea to give your sleep patterns a seasonal check to make sure you are protecting your sleep quantity and quality as best you can. If lately you feel that you’ve been going to bed too late, it may be a good idea to start going to bed 30 minutes earlier each night and start chipping away at your sleep debt that has accumulated throughout the winter. Always aim for your 7-8 hours of sleep each night and base your bedtime off of when you need to wake in the morning.
Springtime brings us brighter mornings and lighter evenings so it’s important to make sure your sleep environment is conducive to sleep. Install black out blinds or panels to keep things dark and turning on a white noise machine keeps early bird chatter at bay.
Has technology taken over your night table throughout the winter? Remove sleep busters like your tablets, phones, and TV remotes. These devices rob us of our early bedtimes and their bright screens suppress our melatonin making it more difficult for us to fall asleep and sleep restoratively throughout the night.
When’s the last time you’ve washed your comforter and pillow? Get ready for the "ew" factor. Within 24 months (or less) your pillow can double it’s weight in allergens and…dust mite poop. Yes the fecal matter of these little dead-skin eating mites. If you suffer from allergies and asthma attacks it’s a good idea to regularly wash your pillows, bedding, and comforters in hot water to avoid breathing in allergens throughout the night. If you feel like you need better neck support it may be time to purchase a new pillow entirely.
Perhaps it was too cold outside to run so your treadmill has found its way into the bedroom or hibernating has forced you to move the home office into bed with you. Well it’s time to pack up it up and ship it out. A main contributing factor of insomnia is spending too much time in bed. It's important that you associate your bedroom and your bed for sleep (and sex) only. This aids in reestablishing proper sleep hygiene, helping you fall asleep easier and remain peacefully sleeping throughout the night.
I provide free child and family sleep support on my Facebook page. I invite you to join our sleep community as I work towards Good Night Sleep Site's mission of a healthier rested family unit. For more sleep tips please visit Good Night Sleep Site.
It’s no surprise that a toddler or child who is not sleeping enough - or well - is not the most pleasant person to be around the next day. I know what I’m like when I haven’t had the best night of sleep. Now imagine your child continuing these poor sleep habits throughout the years. A recent study published in JAMA Pediatrics states that toddlers struggling with sleep could display later emotional and behavioral issues as they get older. The study examined whether sleep issues recorded when the child was 18 months of age played a role in emotional and behavioral problems occurring when the child was 5 years-old. The mother-reported study - conducted in 2014 at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health - included a total of 32,662 children or pregnancies.
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The study showed that toddlers receiving less sleep than deemed age appropriate and those with frequent night wakings experienced more emotional and behavioral occurrences at the preschool age of five. When sleep adjustments were made at 18 months, the strength of the issues at age five weren’t as severe and we know that at any age once complete sleep health is focused on, frequent emotional and behavioral issues can stop all together.
Getting your child to sleep through the night can be tough, but there are age appropriate steps you can take to help you and your child start looking forward to bedtime and get your entire family sleeping better at night.
When you practice the same calming routine each night your child will learn to expect what is happening next and accept it better. It also allows you and your child to have that quiet attachment bonding time right before bed that may have been missed during your busy day.
While your child is at daycare or preschool they could be missing out on proper restorative daytime sleep that they may still need. Remember, children need a lot more sleep than we do, so to balance out that missed sleep it’s always best to make sure they have an age appropriate bedtime. You are looking at a bedtime no later than 7:30 for your preschooler and as early as 6pm and no later than 7pm for your little daycare goer. This earlier bedtime will help with bedtime battles and early risers. While it may seem counter-intuitive, when children are put to bed too late they become overtired and have a hard time accepting sleep and staying asleep throughout the night.
Don't believe the hype! Your toddler still needs a nap. Removing it and allowing your toddler to fall asleep simply because they are exhausted is not the route to take. Proper daytime sleep is beneficial to more than just how your child sleeps at night.
Know your child and watch their signs. Their mood is a key indicator on whether or not their nap is required and if it is (and believe me, it is) make sure it's not too long and doesn't run too late.
If your child is getting up with the birds there are two things we want to look at: one is to make sure your child’s sleep environment is conducive to sleep. A darker environment is always best so installing blackout blinds may be necessary. Also a white noise machine can come in handy to keep the early morning birds and traffic sounds at bay. Lastly, if your child isn’t getting the proper amount of consolidated sleep throughout the day and going to bed too late, a sleep debt could be building, which can also result in early morning wakings.
I provide free child and family sleep support on my Facebook page. I invite you to join our sleep community as I work towards Good Night Sleep Site's mission of a healthier rested family unit. For more sleep tips please visit Good Night Sleep Site.
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