Sleeping Beauty

When you're in your 20s you don't really think about it too much. But add in some babies or simply roll into your 30s, and what woman doesn't fantasize about getting more sleep?

Apart from feeling good, getting seven to nine hours sleep per night, which is the average number of hours an adult needs, helps prevent the following:

 Hyperpigmentation

I did not know this! It turns out that not getting enough sleep stresses the body, which triggers the activation of the proopiomelanocortin gene. (I hope I spelled that correctly - I'd never even heard of it before!)
This causes the body to produce excess pigment that can appear as light brown speckles and spots on the face.

Sagging Skin
Because your blood pressure is higher when you're awake, fluids from your blood vessels leach into your skin and stretch it slightly. When you sleep, these fluids get reabsorbed, but if you don't get sufficient sleep the fluids don't get completely reabsorbed, and the skin stays stretched.
This of course is especially noticeable around the eye area, where the skin is thinner.

Permanent dark circles.

The same fluids that cause puffiness also deposit red blood cells in the skin. These then stay there and show through the skin as dark circles.



Wow.

I read not so long ago that mother of 2 toddlers, Jennifer Lopez gets on average 10 hours sleep per night.
No wonder she looks so young!
I probably average 5....

Sweet dreams ~