5 ways to boost your beauty sleep

Looking and feeling tired? Here are 5 ways to boost your beauty sleep. As it’s not called beauty sleep for no reason! In fact, the amount of shut-eye that you manage to get each night can have a big effect on your appearance. Catching up on those precious zzz grants every cell in your body to regenerate, rather than damaging the process of repairing. Radiant skin, strong nails and luscious locks are only a few of the many beauty benefits that a good night’s sleep can improve. It’s time to say goodbye to puffy dark eyes and check out our top 5 reasons to boost your beauty sleep.

Organise your mind

Stress is one of the main factors that can lead to disruption in your beauty sleep. Hectic and busy lifestyles can often make it impossible to switch off, when we’re worrying about all the jobs we need to do the next day. ‘At least an hour before bed, put together a ‘to do’ list. This can prevent worries or mulling over tasks for the next day whilst trying to sleep,’ advises Lily Soutter, nutritionist and weight loss expert at lilysoutternutrition.com

Switch off, literally

Tend to find yourself scrolling through social media feeds or emails right before bed? While we think this can be a relaxing habit before we drift off, it does in fact have the opposite effect, due to the harmful blue light being emitted from electrical devices. ‘Blocking blue light before bed can transform sleep. Blue light from laptops, phones, ipads and TVs can trick our brain into think that it’s daytime. This can disrupt the brain’s natural sleep-wake cycle leading to a poor night’s sleep,’ explains Lily.

Snack to sleep

Now, we are not talking about a huge takeaway from the ruins of a Saturday night to cure your beauty sleep, but having a light bedtime snack before you hit the snooze can help you drift off easily. ‘A snack of a complex carbohydrate food before bed, such as a couple of oatcakes, half a slice of rye bread or some rye crackers with a bit of hummus can give a gentle release of energy and help to stop us waking up hungry during the night,’ advises Shona Wilkinson, nutritionist at Superfood UK.

Regenerate your skin

Your skin doesn’t just stop working at night, in fact this is the most important time of the day for your skin. it’s the only time skin cells can correctly repair themselves, making a fresh surface for the new skin cells to rehabilitate. Make sure you’ve got your pre-bedtime beauty right by applying Katherine Daniels Repairing Nourishing Mask, £25. This can be applied at night just before bed, or left on overnight to repair and nourish the skin.

Relax the tootsies

We all know there’s nothing better than putting our feet up after a long day, and while the thought of a relaxing foot massage sending us off to sleep sounds amazing, it’s not always possible. Take matters into your own hands (and feet) and relieve those tired soles with a PediRoller from Carnation Footcare. Simply placing the cooling PediRoller under your foot and rolling it back and forth can work wonders. For an extra anti-inflammatory effect, the PediRoller can be frozen before use, which will help to reduce any swelling and ease the tension in the underside of the feet. Try the Carnation Footcare PediRoller, £9.48, Boots.