Beauty Sleep: Complete Guide (2024)

Today, we’re talking beauty sleep. And yes, there’s a difference between your regular slumber and the type that results in a more youthful, glowing you. So what is beauty sleep anyway, and how does one get it? Read on.

In this article we discuss the following:

Beauty Sleep Meaning
How to Get Beauty Sleep
Beauty Sleep Before and After
Beauty Sleep Products

Beauty Sleep Meaning

The Oxford dictionary offers the beauty sleep definition as “sleep considered to be sufficient to keep one looking young and beautiful.” — and whatever that entails, we’re buying! If you lack confidence in your beauty sleep, then you’ll want to read on. We’re going to get the scoop from a range of self-care professionals within the wellness scene, who have a thing or two to offer around this pretty blasé subject.

Beauty sleep origin can be traced right back to the Perceforest narrative that was composed between 1330 and 1344, where a prince finds Sleeping Beauty in a deep, deep slumber behind some bushes. The rest, as they say, is history.

What is Beauty Sleep

“I need my beauty sleep”; something you’ve likely heard over and over in playful commentary when a friend or loved one wants to jet off to bed. But what exactly are we saying when we mutter these declarative words?

This is about more than just a definition in the beauty sleep urban dictionary; beauty sleep is something that can’t really be proven or disproven scientifically, but there is undoubtedly something about getting sufficient rest to the point that the body and skin start to look different as a result. Maria A. McDowell, the founder at EasySearchPeople, is in agreement and states that sleep is vital for the body to repair itself after the grueling day that it faces.

“Without sleep, you would be drowsy, dull, and exhausted. Sleep should be a priority for anyone because sleep is a way for the body to replenish nutrients, take out toxins and repair cells. Sleep is not only a way to energize your body, but it also can make you feel more beautiful. When you sleep, your body releases growth hormones, which increases the protein in your skin and makes your skin look younger. The more you sleep, the better your skin looks!” says Maria.

Beauty Sleep Time Period

To sufficiently get your beauty sleep, you’ll need to adhere to a specific amount of quality beauty sleep hours in a night, for numerous consecutive nights.

Note the emphasis of the word quality! Beauty sleep is considered to fall in the range of 7 to 8 hours per night, but it won’t actually result in beautifying benefits if the sleep itself is of poor quality. For example, you could sleep 9 straight hours on an international flight, but the quality of the sleep is going to be nowhere near what is necessary for the skin and cells to gain positive benefit.

Quality sleep comes from a safe sleeping environment, ideally done on a mattress and sheets that are preferential to your body’s unique needs, in a space where light doesn’t interfere through the night, and where one is able to wake up with the sun in an easy, inviting manner.

Beauty Sleep Tips

Health and wellness enthusiast, Max Person, had some things to share when it comes to contemplating why one should never resist beauty sleep rituals (and beauty sleep duration).

Firstly, according to Max, resisting sleep and staying up later than the body wants to can lead to overeating. “When you’re tired, you’re more likely to make poor food choices and indulge in unhealthy snacks. This can sabotage your diet and cause you to gain weight.”

Second, sleep deprivation can increase levels of the hormone cortisol. “This hormone is associated with stress and can make it harder to lose weight,” says Max.

And lastly, not getting enough sleep can make you less active during the day. “You’ll be too tired to work out or even take a walk. This can prevent you from burning calories and losing weight.”

A top tip for anyone not wanting to battle with their weight for the rest of their lives would be to start taking their sleep more seriously.

Beauty Sleep Benefits

While there are a myriad of benefits that seem to be associated with beauty sleep, the predominant focus is usually around beauty sleep collagen. For the facts on this, we spoke with Ryan Fiorenzi, a certified sleep coach and founder of Start Sleeping.

According to Ryan, sleep may be your own personal access to the fountain of youth. “When you don’t get enough sleep, the process of making new collagen is disrupted, which causes your skin to appear more wrinkled, saggy, and dull than it would if you were well-rested,” explains Ryan.

One of the first signs that you’ve had a lack of sleep is that you have dark circles or bags under your eyes. Ryan says this is because when you have a lack of sleep, your body doesn’t have enough time to make new collagen and let your skin look younger. “When your body isn’t able to make enough new collagen, your skin loses its youthful appearance and becomes more prone to sagging and aging. The process of making new collagen is also responsible for the glow that you see on your skin when you’re well-rested which helps your skin appear more vibrant and healthy than when you’re sleep-deprived,” he adds.

Collagen is beneficial enough for most people to try anything once, but there are other noteworthy benefits too. More control over your weight is one of them, while some people also report healthier, fuller hair that seems to have a natural glow. Mood is generally improved when sleep is regulated and of sound quality, and people who engage in beauty sleep rituals are thought to be noticeably less stressed than those who don’t.

How to Get Beauty Sleep

The best way to get your body into a rhythm of beauty sleep is to adopt the sleeping beauty sleep position. This isn’t going to be music to everyone’s ears; if you’re not used to sleeping on your back, this can be a big adjustment.

This position is said to be optimal for anyone who wants to benefit during their sleep hours. It is said to prolong youthful skin thanks to almost no contact or friction with the fabric of the pillowcase, as well as no pressure from your head pushing the skin into the bed as when sleeping on one’s side.

To increase the quality of the beauty sleep state, one should incorporate one or more of the following elements into the sleep space:

Set up a humidifier in the room where you’ll be sleeping
Sleep on a silk pillowcase, and wear a silk eye mask
Wear earplugs through the night
Keep the room temperature low, and have warm bedding
Always have a glass of water next to your bed
Listen to an app for guided breathing while trying to fall asleep

Beauty Sleep Before and After

Looking at before and after photos for beauty sleep is a tough thing to judge, as there are other pre-bedtime rituals that can also contribute to a youthful morning glow the following day. Certain face masks can give the illusion that great sleep was had, while someone who usually has a glass of wine before bed, and then one day doesn’t, is likely to wake up looking less puffy and more refreshed — and not because of the sleep they just had!

So this is a tricky subject, especially when we’re dealing with the rabbit hole that is the internet! We’ve found that the best thing to do when it comes to beauty sleep is to read about the experiences of others, learn about what the different ways of going about it are, and then going with what resonates for you and trying it first hand!

That said, Dr. Thomas McDonagh from Good Therapy in San Francisco told us of a 2010 study in the journal BMJ that found that sleep deprived people appear less attractive compared to when they are well rested.

“The study participants examined two sets of photographs of individuals. The first set of photos were taken after a normal night of sleep and the second after a reduced night of sleep. The findings found that people appear less attractive and less healthy after a reduced night of sleep. The authors suggest this might be due to human’s sensitivity to sleep-related facial cues,” says Dr. McDonagh. Interesting…

Beauty Sleep Products

The wellness industry being the machine that it is, has resulted in a booming market of beauty sleep aids designed to take your sleep from zero to one hundred in real time. This involves the creation of sleep inducing teas, special mattresses and even vitamins that claim to take one’s sleep into the realm of “quality” in just a few weeks.

Beauty Sleep Mattress

Max Shak, from Abtron, put things into perspective for us in explaining that sleep is often perceived as a time when the mind and body shut down, however, sleep is actually a period of active activity during which a lot of important processing, restoration, and strengthening is taking place.

a woman sleeping with a book on her hand

“Memory consolidation is one of the most important functions of sleep. We take in a great deal of information throughout the day as we go about our daily lives. The fact is that rather than directly logging and recording experiences, they are first processed and stored. This process often occurs while we sleep. Long sleep periods are also essential to restoring and rejuvenating our bodies, as well as to growing muscles, repairing tissue, and synthesizing hormones,” added Max.

All of this considered, it then makes sense why one would be interested in investing in a sort of ‘beauty sleep mattress’. This isn’t a blanket term for a single product, but rather it is solely dependent on what is needed by each individual in order to enter into a quality sleep state. For some, this may be a heavenly soft foam mattress, while for others, a rock hard surface is far more conducive.

Beauty Sleep Mattress Price

Beauty sleep mattresses vary in prices, and while bigger brands will cost a lot more, we always encourage our readers to opt for second hand goods where possible. There is no need to create excess waste for the planet, and there are more than enough semi-used items floating around just looking for someone to give them a home.

Mattresses are no different, especially beauty sleep ones! The hype around this ritual peaked during the 90s and 2000s, so a lot of people bought into consumerism and invested in “beauty sleep mattresses” even though they were pretty much satisfied with their existing ones. Once the hype died down, these mattresses found their way to the back of the garage, only to be sold off on Ebay and Marketplace for a fraction of the price come the 2020’s.

Beauty Sleep Mattress Reviews

The thing about mattresses is that there is no such thing as a “best one”. There is simply a best mattress for you, and we can almost guarantee that it won’t be the same as the next person, or the next…

Mattresses are like shoes — you like what you like. Which is why reading mattress reviews is pretty much a waste of time, unless of course you have your eye on a specific range, have somewhat tried it out for yourself, and simply want to read about the experiences of others before you fork over the funds.

Simmons Beauty Sleep Mattress

Simmons is a leading mattress brand that has been in the game for longer than most of us have been around. They make every kind of mattress, for every kind of sleeper, so browsing their range for a beauty sleep-worthy product is a great place to start.

Beauty Sleep Plush Gel Memory Foam Mattress

When it comes to beauty sleep, the words gel and memory foam often follow suit. Memory foam broke the market many years back when it was first introduced; it made waves as the most revolutionary motion forward for sleep comfort in a very long time.

A memory foam mattress is a splurge, but as an investment into your beauty? Probably a small price to pay!

Beauty Sleep Pillow

Silk pillowcases are often associated with beauty sleep, as it has been determined that the gentleness of the silk is the best for preventing excessive facial creasing throughout the night. The fabric is also naturally hypoallergenic, which means the fibers won’t clog your pores or lead to excessive oil production.

Tula Beauty Sleep

Tula is an overnight probiotic serum that is centered around sleep time, and waking up far more refreshed than when you went to bed. A combination of probiotic extracts, AHAs and vitamin C makes for one potent solution to be lathered onto the skin just before slumber.

Tula targets signs of aging, smooths the skin, and works to reduce wrinkles. It will also brighten and hydrate the skin overnight.

Beauty Sleep Vitamins

Beauty sleep vitamins are a new phenomenon within the wellness market, and they may be worth a second glance if the duration of your sleep isn’t so much the issue, compared to the quality.

Sleep vitamins work to send the body into a deeper, calmer, restful state where quality sleep can take place as the body is surrendered and the nervous system is not activated. Due to the stress of everyday life, a lot of us go to sleep with overactive nervous systems that keep the body in some sort of fight or flight mode throughout the night — just in case. Beauty sleep is not possible in this state, so taking herbal supplements that can help relax the system is a great way to improve the overall quality of one’s sleep.

Beauty Sleep Tea

The best beauty sleep drink would be tea, as it too can provide that herbal formulation to the body’s nervous system, gently bringing things down and allowing the mind to drift off into high quality slumber.

Beauty Sleep Chamomile Rose Tea

Chamomile has been known since ancient times to be one of the best sleep-brining herbs on the planet. It is extremely calming for the body and the mind, and when mixed with something like rose, there is no telling what this hot beverage before bed could do to improve your sleep state once and for all.

You see, chamomile contains apigenin, an antioxidant that quickly binds together specific brain receptors that would otherwise work to produce insomnia. These receptors just being active is enough to keep beauty sleep at bay — so relaxing them every evening is one of the best things you can do for your wellbeing in general.

Republic of Tea Beauty Sleep

This bed time beauty secret is the brainchild of the Republic of Tea. The tea brand released their “Beautifying Botanicals” herbal tea blend a few years ago, and the reviews have been nothing short of impressive!

The mix of chamomile and rose is intended for before bed consumption, being naturally caffeine free, of course. It is said that the tea works to improve one’s complexion overnight, while also promoting fast, easy sleep. The mixture also contains blue butterfly pea flower, which contains anthocyanins that are said to promote collagen.

Beauty Sleep Mask

Any overnight mask would be considered a beauty sleep ritual! The needs and condition of your skin will determine exactly what type of mask you need, but for the most part overnight masks tend to target moisture, nourishment and anti-inflammatory properties.

Beauty Sleep Eye Mask

Overnight eye masks are also widely available and are a little different to regular masks. Many people like to cut corners here, and maintain that putting a regular mask under the eye area gets the job done just fine.

This isn’t alway the case, as the skin under the eyes is so delicate, a lot of regular masks are too dense, meaning the molecular structure of the formula can’t actually penetrate this area of skin in the way it can other zones of the face. This is why independent eye masks exist; their compound structure is less dense and can seep into the pores under the eyes.

Beauty Sleep Essential Oil

Essential oils are a great thing to incorporate into a beauty sleep routine. Aromatherapy is continuously proving its value within the wellness industry, and the sleep state is not exempt! We talked earlier about introducing a humidifier or diffuser into the space in which you sleep — essential oils can be added to these devices to filter the aromatic therapy through the space and bring about higher quality sleep with very little effort!

Lavender, rose geranium, Chinese jasmine, sandalwood and Ylang Ylang are said to be the best oils for inducing or regulating sleep states.

Vitafusion Beauty Sleep

VitaFusion is a brand that developed sleep gummies early on. Made with natural vitamins and herbs, taking one gummy before bed is said to support the sleep state for the duration of the night. The product has done so well that a lot of people keep it on hand for cases of jet lag, too!

Vitafusion Beauty Sleep at Costco

You can buy VitaFusion via only platforms such as Ebay and Amazon, or you can go to your nearest Costco to purchase it in person! They are not expensive and you’ll get 60 capsules per pack.

Reading the reviews from past customers, these vitamins do just as they claim to, and many return for repeat purchases after their first supply runs out.

Vitafusion Beauty Sleep at Walmart

VitaFusion is officially listed with Walmart, so you can shop both online or in store and enjoy the benefits of these beauty sleep gummies. Each gummy contains a generous dose of melatonin, so be sure not to take one whilst driving! Right before climbing into bed would be the most ideal time to consume one of these, or when on a long haul flight (unless you are the pilot — ha!).

Beauty Sleep Gummies

Speaking of beauty sleep gummies, what are they? These are simply sleep aids that have been put into tasty, chewable portions that are easy to consume (unlike regular pills or capsules).

These gummies will generally contain one of more natural sleep-aids, such as melatonin, chamomile, valerian root, etc. They are non-addictive, so they’re a great alternative to prescription sleeping pills that are full of chemicals.

Beauty Sleep Gummies Reviews

Beauty sleep gummies really changed the game for the sleep industry. Given the high levels of stress and anxiety that humans live with these days, sleep favors very few and many are always on the hunt for the next tincture, capsule or app that can promise you will doze off within the hour!

Beauty sleep gummies typically contain high potency ingredients, and are able to take even the most stubborn sleeper into a relaxed state where anything is possible. Read some product reviews and you’ll see what we mean!

Beauty Sleep Tincture

Speaking of tinctures, this is our preferred means of bringing on rapid sleep. Also made with high potency herbal formulas, tinctures compress the different plants and roots that can aid sleep all into one convenient bottle of potion.

Simply drop it under the tongue, hold it there for a few seconds (or longer if you can endure it), then swallow and wait for the magic to happen.

Green Revolution Beauty Sleep Tincture Review

Some brands are taking tinctures to the next level with the addition of THC and or CBD into the mix. Green Revolution were one of the pioneers, and their devoted troop of customers is evidence enough that their products work as they say they will.

Green Revolution embraces the hemp movement and understands exactly how sleep state and this plant are beautifully intertwined.

Beauty Sleep Elixir

Is an elixir different to a tincture? Yes indeed. Typically, tinctures are consumed orally, while elixirs are used topically. Their makeup is usually similar; made with dozens of plant derived oils that work wonders with human skin.

One can really turn anything into an elixir if they wanted to. Sea moss, chia seeds, fruits, barks… the possibilities are endless.

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