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5 reasons you need your beauty sleep
The secret to good looks, a sharp mind and vibrant health is all in your beauty sleep, so say goodbye to sleep deprivation with these tips.
By Dana Tye Rally
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How do you get your beauty sleep? Share your tips with other readers in our forums!
3. Mastermind
So much for all-night cramming: new research suggests that trading sleep for an intellectual edge is counterproductive. According to a Trent University study, students who study into the wee hours forget up to one-third of everything they learned the night -- even days -- before. The good news? Sleep can actually boost brain power. Dr. Jeffrey Ellenbogen, director of Massachusetts General Hospital's Sleep Medicine Program, found that healthy 18- to 39-year-olds who slept for seven hours after performing a memorization exercise in the evening retained more information than those who studied in the morning and stayed awake for the rest of the day.
4. Body language
Warding off colds -- and even living longer -- may have more to do with crashing early than eating your veggies and taking your vitamins. "Sleep heightens the body's immune defences," says Dr. Linda Toth, a pharmacology professor at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine. "The evidence also shows that people with the greatest life expectancy get seven to eight hours of sleep a night." Less time in the sack means more susceptibility to disease: when you're sleep-deprived, you produce abnormally high levels of cytokines (proteins that send messages between cells), which can delay the process of healing. "Even a relatively brief loss of sleep changes the body's ability to cope with an infection," says Toth.
5. Happy days
Need cheering up? New research from the University of Kansas suggests that people who are the most amiable and self-possessed and have the greatest sense of purpose in life tend to sleep an average of six to 8.5 hours a night. "People who routinely sleep well are more likely to feel better about life and about themselves," says lead researcher Dr. Nancy Hamilton. "Although it's not clear which came first -- a sense of well-being or a good night's sleep -- it probably works both ways." On the flip side, lack of sleep has been linked to depression. Dr. Maurice Ohayon, a psychiatrist and director of the Stanford Sleep Epidemiology Research Center, says that patients suffering from insomnia and depression share similar symptoms: fatigue, irritability, concentration difficulties, dark thoughts and increased sensitivity to pain. "Insomnia can lead to a low-level depression that could seriously affect job performance or the ability to establish healthy relationships," says Ohayon.
Wake-up call?
Kick-starting your sleepy brain used to mean sipping an afternoon espresso. Now there's a trend toward popping pills that kill the urge to sleep altogether. Dr. Jonathan Fleming, co-director of the University of British Columbia Hospital's Sleep Disorder Program, says that there is growing off-label usage of Alertec, a prescription drug intended to treat narcolepsy. However, using the drug can be harmful if you don't have this condition, warns Fleming. "People already shortchange themselves on sleep, missing out on its reparative processes and other vital functions." Kryger agrees: "The last thing we want is to see someone using this drug instead of sleeping."
Do you have a beauty question? Ask our expert, Miss Blush!
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