On beauty rest

There exists a fascinating chemistry behind the link of sleep, and lack thereof, and the look of our skin. From dark circles, puffy eyes, collagen synthesis, and on and on, the skin reacts to the loss of beauty rest. But we don’t even need to write about that to convince you. You know that already, dear reader. You know how great you look after a night of restoring sleep, and how you look when worries or heartache prevent you from getting that rest. And us here, we know that, too. There is no shortage of stressors that can ruin, or at least shorten our sleep. Dr Lasio’s real name is Nervous Nellie.

So it is out of personal necessity that we embarked on the quest to find a set of protocols to improve our sleep. While there are prescription drugs to do that, we view those as last resort options, and are searching for non-pharmaceutical solutions. So, what should we do if we don’t want to drug ourselves into nightly rest? There are no magic bullets that we are aware of that you can use and immediately improve your sleep. But there are a lot of things we can do to put ourselves into the best possible position to get a good night’s rest. Here are some of them.

Behavior

Use the light to your advantage: This is probably the most important advice that many of us get wrong, ourselves included. Get in sync with the circadian rhythm, get awake and alert in the morning, and at the end of the day unwind and relax. The more you can do this in line with the light and dark daily cycle, the better. In short, we don’t believe in night owls. Get as much light into your eyes (safely, of course) early in the day, preferably sunlight. These days, women in particular are trained to avoid sunlight at all cost, in order to fight wrinkles, but that’s misguided, to say the least. There is such a thing as too much sun exposure, of course, but we are here to tell you that there is such a thing as too little sun exposure, too. When you are exposed to sunlight in the morning, you are giving a powerful signal to the brain that it’s time to be awake. In the evening, though, dim your lights, and discipline yourself to stay away from screens. And for the love of all things holy, stay away from news in the evening.

Try to get up and go to bed at the same time each day. No reason to upset the routine on the weekend. Train your body to be sleepy at a certain time in the evening, and to get up at the same time in the morning, too.

Give yourself time to sleep. Sometimes, we are so busy that we don’t even have more than six hours in a day dedicated to sleep. If that’s the case, organize your life so that you can allow yourself seven to eight hours to sleep. Easier said than done, but it’s a worthwhile goal.

Don’t park your cell phone in your bedroom. A no-brainer.

Make your bedroom as dark as possible. Very important. The less light, the more your body produces melatonin, the better you’ll sleep. It’s the opposite of mornings-we want light, light, light in the morning, and dark, dark, dark at night.

Keep your bedroom cool. It’s hard to sleep when you are hot-we actually cool down while we sleep, and a cool bedroom will help keeping us asleep longer.

Cold showers in the morning. One of many benefits of cold exposure in the morning is that it will get you awake. If you are willing to get yourself cold, do it in the morning, to awaken when you should be awake. We do not recommend cold showers before going to bed.

Mouth taping. If you, umm, make noise while you sleep, like we do, or sleep with your mouth open regardless of noise, it will benefit both you and your beloved if you were to tape your mouth shut. We started this over a year ago, and it made a big difference in our sleep quality. Just a simple tape that will be strong enough to hold your mouth shut while you sleep is all it takes. Sleeping without snoring is a noble goal.

Supplements and Diet

Magnesium: Ah, we are big proponents of eating foods rich in, and supplementing with magnesium. Not only does it calm the nerves, it’s also good for the heart and bones. The type of magnesium supplement you choose is critical, however-magnesium oxide is simply a waste of money, as not enough of it is absorbed to make a difference. Magnesium glycinate or threonate are chelated forms of magnesium that will be much easier to absorb, so that’s the way to go. They are not cheap, but certainly less expensive than the aftermath of poor sleep.

Glycine: The little amino acid, the simplest of them all, can also help with sleep, especially in combination with magnesium. Definitely recommend.

Melatonin: we do not use it, and we do not recommend anyone using melatonin for sleep, or anything else-in fact, even though we are not offering medical advice, we urge you to skip it. Melatonin is a hormone, and as such, should be dealt with carefully. Your body makes melatonin in very small doses, dependent on the time of day, and amount of light you have around. The supplements, on the other hand, have much higher amounts, so they can really throw you off. Melatonin impacts sex hormones, and can, for instance suppress puberty in children, so we shudder at the fact that pharmacies are full of melatonin gummies for kids. If you have children, dear reader, sing them lullabies for sleep, or read them a good book. Don’t give them hormones to make them drowsy. But we digress.

Coffee and caffeine drinks: If you indulge in those, we believe it would be wise to have your last coffee before 2pm. Caffeine is a powerful stimulant, and it takes a while for it to get out of your system. We do like caffeine in our cosmetics, but that’s a story for another day.

Alcohol: Alcohol will sedate you to sleep, but in a study after study, it’s been shown (with plenty of anecdotal evidence) that it lowers the quality of your sleep. If you can help it, skip it. It’s a good idea to avoid it altogether.

In summary, we believe you should try behavioral changes before any supplementation. Getting in sync with light and dark cycles might be enough for many of us. For many of us, a few more supplements, or avoiding alcohol, caffeine, and news might do the trick. Whatever you do, we hope you do get the rest you deserve. Here’s to you, dear reader, feeling rested, and looking dashing, morning after morning.

Yours truly,

Dr Lasio

Disclaimer: This is not medical advice.