Natural Beauty from Nature Purity

Dear Reader,

It’s only after a few bad nights that you realize how important a good night sleep is in life. On the long run, a bad quality sleep, whether it’s because of a nocturnal baby, or bad dreams, or insomnia or the noisy inconsiderate neighbors, is very destructive. Your energy goes down, you wake up tired, you look awful and you have to either drag yourself or kick yourself in the butts all day long… Not a good way to spend your day and your life! It seems, according to recent studies that we are all sleep deprived and this deprivation has a lot more consequences than just adding a few wrinkles on your face. In this context, is the DST shift a blessing or a curse?

The Daylight Savings Time (DST) shift

The tradition of the DST comes from a very lighthearted essay from B. Franklin in 1784 and the idea was to help people become richer by saving on candles. The idea wasn’t taken seriously before World War I when the shortage and high cost of fuel made a case for the DST shift, to save on artificial light. The practice was reinstated during WWII and then kept running since then. This is why we all moved our clock back on Sunday, except for some states like Arizona, which are not into the trendy DST changes. So that should have given you 1hr sleep extra. But on the other hand, it has messed up with your internal clock and the result is a small jetlag-like effect. So give yourself a few days to readjust your biological clock to the new time while your body reset its production of hormones like Melatonin, which is key in the time keeping and night/day balance for your body.

Your sleep debt

Before the invention of electricity, 24hr cable or satellite TV and computers, people were following the natural rhythms of night/day. They were getting up with the sun and going to sleep not much later after it was set. This was a great way for them to be in tune with Nature and fulfill their natural need of sleep, no less and no more. But today, we live in a very artificial setup which allows us to be active as much as we want and do what we want anytime of day or night. What we sometimes forget is that we have biological needs beyond eating and drinking and breathing. Sleep is one of them and a lot of us have, over the years, accumulated a critical sleep debt that makes us more prone to aging, weakening of the immune system and accidents… “The problem is that even with a large sleep debt, you may truly believe that you are wide awake and not a bit sleepy” writes Dr S. Coren in his book Sleep Thieves. I don’t mean we should all go back to how people lived 200 years ago, as this is totally unrealistic and very impractical. I only wish to help you to reconnect with your body, its natural rhythms and cycles, as this is a way to be healthy (and avoid the swine flu!)

For example, if you have the tendency to doze off between 1-4 pm, this is an indication of a sleep debt because this is one of the times when your biological clock unwinds, another time being 1-4 am. Dozing off in front of your computer isn’t too bad (except if you are a trader and just missed a multi million dollar market opportunity) but dozing off while you’re driving can be fatal for you (too bad for you) and the innocent people you drive into (that’s unfair!). These are just everyday examples of what a sleep debt will do to you, but on the long run, it’s your beauty and health that will suffer deeply. Why? Because it’s during sleep that your body repairs and regenerates itself, all automatically. And if you wonder whether this includes the repair of your skin wrinkles and fine lines and age spots and all time-induced damages, the answer is YES!

Sleep tight sweet heart

Since sleep is such a simple natural process, few of us perceive any value in it, mostly because it’s free. Now if I tell you that paying your sleep debt can save you thousands of dollars in beauty products, vitamins and supplements and visits to doctors and other health practitioners, would I get more of your attention?

If you have a hard time going to sleep, you may want to do the Beautiful Eye Mask ritual and/or use a little bit of Lavender essential oil on the inside of your wrists and on your pillow. You may also want to try an herbal tea combination like Linden, Lemon Balm, Passion Flower before bed time. Finally, emptying your mind of all the worries and stress of the day will dramatically help you to have a very regenerating sleep. If you want to know more about sleep, have a look at our book review on Beauty Sleep.

If your body burden is weighing heavily on you, this may also prevent you from getting good sleep. Look into our new Fall Detox article for tips and recipes.

Anyway you want, Fall and Winter are the right seasons to catch up with this sleep deprivation and follow the natural cycle of daylight decreasing and night increasing. My mother, a very sun-loving creature, used to say that she would love to be able to hibernate during the Winter. I wouldn’t go that far!