Sleep Your Way to Better Skin
A few years ago, my about-to-be-married friend and I treated ourselves to a special service offered at a high-end spa/salon. In celebration of her upcoming nuptials, I chose to get a Swedish massage—since I am rarely on the receiving end of such soft tissue joy! My girlfriend, who is 10 years my senior, opted for a rejuvenating facial. When it came time to pay for our treatments, my jaw dropped to learn that her “Signature Facial” had run her $210! Who knew the price tag on younger looking skin could be so high?
Friends, it doesn’t have to cost you mucho denaros in order to have younger looking skin. All that’s required of you is a little less effort. That’s right; less work and MORE SLEEP! While you and I are asleep in our beds, something magical happens—our bodies turn into a construction zone, or should I say a re-construction zone. Part of that reconstruction is the manufacturing of vital hormones. The one of particular interest to today’s health tip is growth hormone.
Growth hormone plays its starring role during our formative years, say birth to age 18. It’s responsible for growing us up and out in stature and girth. Afterward, it takes a more supportive role in that it maintains the strength of our muscles, the density of our bones, and…drum roll, please…preserves the firmness in our skin. Yay, for this “magic trick”!
So, here’s the secret to healthier, more youthful skin: sleep. Seven to eight hours, and there ain’t no getting around that! If you sleep 20% less each night (say only 6 ½ hours instead of 8), you will make that much less growth hormone. Subsequently your skin will look older than the skeleton it covers.
Do yourself a (free) favor: get adequate sleep each night so that you can get all the God-designed beauty benefits that human growth hormone provides.