Friday September 15 2017 beauty sleep journal entry

Well I did not really sleep all that well last night, nor did I manage to put in a lot of hours of sleep on my back. I went to bed at about midnight. That was my first mis-deed. To maximize the benefits of sleep, I really need to be in bed by ten o’clock. Ideally I will be in bed by nine o’clock. But this week has been a challenge, and I have not been going to bed at a reasonable hour to allow myself to maximize the benefits of sleep.

Last night’s sleep was rough. I tossed and turned. I tried to sleep on my back but I was never comfortable and could never stay sleeping on my back for very long. I woke up several times and eventually had to get out of bed to get Ibuprofen to treat a horrible headache.  At 5:30AM I woke up still with a headache. I went out to the living room to lie down on the couch because I suspect the carpet in the bedroom is causing me some health problems. But I do have to say, although I didn’t wake up looking like Sleeping Beauty, I’ve looked worse. So, even though the efforts to train myself to sleep on my back aren’t going as well as I would like, I do think it’s heading in the right direction. Because since I’ve started, I’ve noticed that the developing nasolabial folds are lessening in intensity, and so are the bags under my eyes. I take pictures regularly because of the professional goals I am chasing, and even before I have performed my cleansing rituals, test photos I’ve taken show me looking fresher faced than I should considering I did not sleep very soundly. I do have to attribute a lot of that to the collagen mist that I use throughout the day and the collagen that I consume. That stuff is seriously amazing if you’re not using it (collagen). Hit me up and I’ll make you a bottle of the mist I use. It totally rocks.

So should I buy a beauty pillow to try to help myself sleep on my back?

I still have not purchased any specialized pillows for beauty sleeping, because I feel like I should be able to train myself to sleep on my back without needing to buy a sleep wrinkle pillow. But so far I am not having very good results. I have to confess, I have been depressed lately, and depression affects my sleep. I’ve had sleeping issues for more than a decade, starting when I had a traumatic shock to my mental and emotional system, the details of which I will spare you. But I started having trouble sleeping more than 10 years ago. This year I decided to pursue the desires of my heart–the thing that gives me the most joy. It requires me to be in the public eye. So I cannot afford to be looking like something the cat dragged in. So I have been taking extra care to try to repair the damage done to my looks by going so many years not getting adequate sleep at night and sleeping on unsanitary pillows while lying on my stomach and side during those hours when I did manage to get a little sleep.

My trying to sleep on my back is a relatively new thing. Mostly I have been trying beauty products to repair my looks and I have seen remarkable results, but there are two particular issues that beauty products cannot fix. The bags under my eyes, and the beginnings of the formation of nasolabial folds at the sides of my face. These two problems are said to be impossible to fix without surgery; but I have no intention of undergoing surgery even if it’s cosmetic. In 2016 I underwent a life changing operation. I intend that to be my first and only. Of course we say things today and change our mind tomorrow, but at this moment, that is my stand. So I have been researching natural ways to at least minimize the bags under my eyes and minimize and halt the development of these folds, which I attribute entirely to not getting enough sleep for such a long period of time and sleeping poorly when I have slept, not just in terms of the position in which I have slept, but the constant tossing and turning. My almost 70 year old mother does not have nasolabial folds. None of my sister have them, including the ones who are older than I am. I believe my depression and all the symptoms that resulted are what caused me to develop them; and I’m hopeful that with the use of collagen and other products combined with trying to fix my sleep issues and training myself to sleep on my back in order to maximize the benefits of sleep, I can reduce them to where I can live with them if I can’t get rid of them. Right now they compromise my looks in a way that I cannot accept.

But like I said, it looks like things are already improving. So I am heartened and even more hopeful that once I conquer my efforts to train myself to sleep on my back, I will be able to reverse some of this damage.

I am trying to get at least 8 hours of sleep every night. It amazes me the difference in my appearance when I have gone at least 3 days getting no fewer than 8 hours of sleep. My photos require less drastic editing because my face is significantly less warped by the bags under my eyes and the stuff going on at the side of my face. I’ve been referring to it as nasolabial folds because I can’t find another more applicable term for it; but I don’t really have folds per se. What I have is the swelling that eventually results in folds once all elasticity is lost in that area. My collagen mist is helping to keep my skin fairly firm for now. And I’m sure the products I am using are also doing their part to help. What happens in my case is that the swelling combined with the under eye bags makes me look pretty haggard. So it’s always a relief when I can see that the swelling is less intense like right now. And I chalk that up to the collagen tea I drink and the collagen mist I spray, along with the benefits of getting at least some of my sleep on my back.

One of my older (by only a bit) sisters who has always been a back sleeper looks totally amazing. So I think there’s something to the idea that sleeping on your back is the best position for fighting sleep wrinkles and other damage that is done to your face when you sleep. Really, nothing damaging should be happening to your face when you sleep. Sleep is about rejuvenation and regeneration. And I’m trying to figure out how to harness all that power so that I can look like my mother when I am almost 70. You should see her face and neck. Completely line and wrinkle free. I know when you hear about someone nearly 70 being line and wrinkle free you think it’s BS; but it happens. It’s not that she looks like a 30 year old. She’s obviously an older woman, but even my husband was admitting she still looks good. And by “still looks good”, you know what a man means.

I don’t know if my mom sleeps on her back though. I’ll have to ask her when I speak to her later. My grandmother has amazing skin well into her seventies as well so it could be genetic. I just wasn’t so lucky to get those genes myself so I have to find ways to help myself achieve my goal of repairing the damage of decades of depression, self hate, not caring and also just not being able to afford to take care of my looks.

If you have tried and have conquered sleeping on your back without using an anti wrinkle pillow or any other type of beauty pillow, feel free to share your tips.

I did find that when I slept on the couch it was easier to protect my face because I slept on a sectional in L-shaped part and I was able to sort of elevate myself and turn my face into the corner on my arms without my actual face touching anything. So that might be a method to try.

Good luck to all of you who are battling under eye bags and nasolabial folds. Drop me a line with any suggestions. Or follow my posts to find out what is working for me. Trust me, if I am telling you I was able to look at my makeup free face first thing in the morning and feel good, something is working!

Excuse my grammatical errors, but this is not a test and I’ve got to run to the studio so I’ll have to leave them.