Confidently Beautiful with Ciera
Confidently Beautiful with Ciera
Sleep Your Way to Better Skin
Products mentioned in episode:
Sleep isn't just rest – it's your skin's most powerful recovery tool. Scientific research has confirmed what our grandmothers knew all along: beauty sleep is entirely real, with measurable effects on your skin's appearance, health, and aging process.
When you shortchange your sleep, your skin pays the price in multiple ways. University Hospital Case Medical Center researchers discovered poor sleepers develop more wrinkles, heal slower from environmental damage, and maintain weaker skin barriers than those who consistently get quality rest. Meanwhile, the Journal of Investigative Dermatology found sleep deprivation disrupts your skin's moisture balance, leading to dryness, roughness, and reduced plumpness.
Those dark circles aren't your imagination – even a single night of poor sleep visibly affects your appearance with paleness, under-eye darkening, and droopiness. More concerning is the connection between sleep deprivation and breakouts: when you don't sleep enough, cortisol (stress hormone) levels rise, triggering inflammation and excess oil production that can lead to acne flare-ups and irritation.
The good news? Simple, actionable changes can transform both your sleep quality and skin health. Creating a consistent sleep schedule, establishing a calming pre-bedtime ritual, optimizing your sleep environment (cool, dark, and comfortable), limiting screen time before bed, watching what you eat and drink in the evening, and incorporating natural sleep boosters like magnesium can dramatically improve your rest.
Your skin literally repairs itself while you sleep. It's a remarkable process that no skincare product – regardless of price point – can fully replicate. By implementing just one of these evidence-based sleep strategies, you can begin revitalizing your skin's health and appearance from the inside out. Which sleep hack will you try tonight for more confidently beautiful skin tomorrow?
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you're listening to confidently beautiful with Ciera a podcast to help you stay confidently beautiful, because we all have confidence inside us. We just need to bring it out and I'm here to show you how body image, dreams, parenting, style, personality and more here we cover it all. Get ready to stay confidently beautiful. We've all heard the phrase beauty sleep, but let's be real does sleep actually make you prettier? Does it really make you more beautiful, or is it just a fancy excuse for hitting snooze 10 times? Well, guess what Science says? It's 100% legit. Your skin is out there begging for you to get better sleep, and today I'm going to prove why.
Ciera :In this episode, we're breaking down exactly how sleep affects your skin, what studies reveal about its impact and, most importantly, how we can fix it. Now, this is a guilt-free episode. We can all be better at different areas in our lives, so if sleep is an area in your life that you are just not doing a great job at, or maybe you have things that are making it really hard to actually get some sleep like hello newborn, hello toddler you know all of those things that can make sleep so hard as a mom this is a guilt-free episode. We don't want you to be feeling guilty about anything, and this is just a way that I want you to hopefully learn something and how you can improve your skin and to feel more confident in your life. So just take one thing that you listen to today. Don't feel bad about the things that maybe you aren't doing, that you could be doing better, and let's just try and learn a little bit about sleep and how we can improve that area in our life to improve our skin.
Ciera :There are four ways that lack of sleep wrecks your skin. Number one is your skin ages faster and heals slower. The heal slower, I thought was so interesting. So a university hospital case medical center found that poor sleepers had more wrinkles, slower healing from sun damage and weaker skin barriers. So basically, that means that their skin was more dull, tired and it didn't bounce back as quickly as those who had good sleep habits.
Ciera :Bad sleep equals looking like you've been through a time machine, and it's not the fun kind of time machine, it's not the youthful kind. It is the one that's going to make you look a lot older and it's going to make it so that your skin does not bounce back the way that we want it to when we are out in the sun and we get a sunburn, it's not going to heal itself as quickly and when it does heal itself, it's not going to look as healthy as it would have before. Number two your skin loses hydration and elasticity. The Journal of Investigative Dermatology found that sleep deprivation messes with your skin moisture levels, making it drier, rougher and less plump. We all want hydrated skin because not only does I think it looks better if your skin is hydrated, but it also is going to feel so much better. Your skin is going to feel so much better if it is hydrated and has all the moisture that it needs. So the less sleep you get, the less moisture your skin is going to hold and the rougher your skin is going to feel.
Ciera :Number three you literally look more tired because you actually are more tired, right? So the Sleep Foundation says, even one bad night can leave you with pale skin, dark circles and droopy eyes. Now, I know we all have had bad nights of sleep, whether it's because we ourselves just are having a hard time sleeping, maybe menopause, maybe health issues, maybe we're sick, or maybe we have some little visitors in the night that are crying out for us or coming and visiting us, or like my little one who always seems to find his way into my bed and I have him right up next to me all night long, and so that just makes it a harder for me to sleep. Those bad nights are going to happen, but when they do happen, research shows that your skin is paler, you have more dark circles and you have more droopy eyes. Now there are fabulous products out there that, if these things bother you, you can do something to fix it and you can do something to cover those things up and to make you feel better. If you're having a lot of these wow you look tired moments from people, then maybe there's some things that you can do to try and improve your sleep the best that you can, and I'm going to get to those a little bit later in the episode.
Ciera :And number four breakouts, redness and skin freakouts. Your skin might freak out if you are not getting enough sleep. Sleep is when your skin repairs itself. I mean our whole body repairs itself while we sleep, which is why sleep is so important. So our skin is no exception. Your skin repairs itself while we're sleeping, and if we're not clocking enough hours in the night, it increases our cortisol, which is our stress hormone, which is going to trigger breakouts, irritation and even worsen conditions. So not only do you feel exhausted, but your skin is going to be full on blowing up because it is in protest. It needs sleep. Your skin needs sleep, your body needs sleep. It needs to repair itself, it needs to restore itself at night. So those are four ways that lack of sleep can have a big impact on your skin. So how do we fix this? Here are eight game changer sleep hacks for glowing skin.
Ciera :Number one is set a sleep schedule and stick to it. Your body craves routine. So if you can try and go to sleep around the same time every night and hard time getting up at the regular time on Sundays, I'm just so tired from the week and so I just find myself wanting to just relax and not do much. If I get up with the kids and get them breakfast and then find myself kind of drifting back off to sleep on the couch or back in my room wherever the kids are playing, then I always have so much more of a groggy day and it kind of throws off the rest of my day. But if I can just get up with them, get them breakfast and actually stay up and not lounge around and rest too much, then I actually feel a lot better because I think when your bodies crave that routine and they like to do the same thing every day, like then, we feel so much better. So, and I think I also sleep better at night. When I haven't had a morning where I've kind of been like in and out of sleep napping throughout the morning, then I definitely fall asleep easier that night and I can stay asleep better in the nighttime.
Ciera :Number two is to create a pre-bedtime ritual. So wind down with like a bath or a book or a nice skincare routine. Your brain needs like some sort of signal that it's bedtime. I have actually been listening to a lot of stuff about transitions and like how you can use transitions in different parts of your life to help with different areas. Help with different areas, and I think like a pre-bedtime ritual can be a really good transition for you to signal to your brain like, hey, it's time to wind down, it's time to relax and it's time to go to bed. That was actually mentioned in the previous episode that I had One of the moms that was sharing her pre-bedtime rituals. She is in that perimenopause stage and she talks about how, having her long, she has like a one hour pre bedtime ritual and that can really improve her ability to fall asleep and to stay asleep.
Ciera :Number three upgrade your sleep environment. So make your bedroom cool, dark and cozy. Invest in some good pillows. I need a good pillow. My pillow is not good right now and so I am on the hunt for a good pillow. So if you have a good pillow, I would love all the recommendations, because I am definitely looking for one and blackout curtains. I do this with my kids. I find for myself that I sleep so much better. My husband's always laughing at me because we have in our blinds. Sometimes the bottom blind will like pop open and the house across the street their lights just shine all the way in and every night I have to get up and flip that blind so that it's closed all the way. And he's just always laughing at me because he says that I'm just so sensitive. But I'm like, no, I can't have like the random lights and like they've just drive me crazy. Investing in like some good blackout curtains or some heavier duty blinds that can keep out that light can really be beneficial for you. Studies show that cooler temperatures help you to fall asleep faster. So sleep with a ceiling fan, sleep with your thermostat down a little bit lower than normal, and you should hopefully be able to sleep a little bit better at night.
Ciera :Number four ditch the screens before bed. So blue light from your phone disrupts your melatonin, which is your sleep hormone. Try to limit your screens at least an hour before bed. If you are going to use screens, you can try the blue light glasses. I find that they kind of helped me a little bit, but it definitely is the best thing for me to just reduce screens completely at least an hour before bed, not only with the blue light, but I think also with, like the doom scrolling or you know, all of the things that, like social media itself can, can catch us into doing. That can keep our brains anxious and awake and you know, going, going, going and that can definitely have a big impact on our sleep. So that and the blue light, ditching the screens before bed, can be a huge benefit. All right.
Ciera :Number five watch what you eat and drink. So try and avoid caffeine. I try, I try I say try, I try and not have any caffeine after 4 pm. The research that I was showing said 2 pm is like the best time to cut off your caffeine intake, but definitely, like I try really hard to be done with any caffeine that I'm going to be having by 4 pm, because I definitely have a harder time falling asleep and I find that I wake up at 2 am. So much more often if I am having caffeine later in the day than I find myself waking up at like 2, 3 am and just laying there and not being able to fall back asleep. Another thing is to avoid heavy meals right before bed. I know there are a lot of studies that saying that you shouldn't eat two hours before bedtime. If you are going to eat, make sure it's something light so that you can. You don't have to be like digesting that all night long, because that's going to have a huge impact on your sleep. Drink your water, because your skin needs it and this will also help your sleep. Just be mindful of when you're drinking it. You probably don't want to drink a gallon right before you go to bed, unless you like to frequent the bathroom in the middle of the night.
Ciera :Number six try natural sleep boosters. Magnesium is a really great natural sleep booster. You know a lot of people really like magnesium baths. I love a magnesium lotion that I will link in the show notes below. I just get it on Amazon and I find that that helps my body to just relax a little bit.
Ciera :Number seven is to manage your stress. Your skin can tell when you are stressed, so practice things like meditating, journaling, deep breathing, whatever that calms you right before bed. I find when I take five minutes and just read for five minutes, that can help to relax my body and relax my mind and can help manage my stress. To do something that is kind of brainless. I really enjoy reading like something that's like fiction, nothing that's like self-help related or anything like that, but something that I can just get lost in the story and not have to think about the stresses of life. That can help me to manage my stress before bed Because, let's be honest, late night overthinking is not a good skincare treatment. So we want to manage our stress.
Ciera :And number eight is to move your body, but try not to do it right before bed unless you're going to be doing something that's calming, like stretching or yoga. So exercise helps with your sleep. Doing it too late can hype you up, so I prefer to do my exercises in the morning or throughout the day. I love to go walking. I think walking is such a good form of exercise, and the one form of exercise that I love to do before bed is yoga. I try and go to a yoga class every Monday evening and I love my Monday nights because of the yoga, and I need to just be better about bringing it home, too and turning on Apple Fitness. Or because of the yoga, and I need to just be better about bringing home to and turning on Apple fitness or some sort of yoga. Even like a 10 minute yoga can have such a big impact on how quickly I can fall asleep. And a bonus with your exercise and moving your body is it's not going to help you with your sleep, but it also helps your skin just anyways, because it improves your circulation and that will make your skin look and feel a lot better.
Ciera :So my final thoughts are your skin is literally repairing itself while you sleep. I think that's the biggest thing. So don't skimp on rest If you want that natural glow. Not only are you going to have that natural glow, but you're also going to feel so much better and you're going to bring that confidence into so many other areas of your life. So just try one of these tips. I gave eight tips. That's a lot of things that we can doing, but just try one thing. Whether it's ditching the screens before bed, setting a bedtime routine, finally getting those blackout curtains, your skin will love you for it. So just pick one and try it. And if you've loved this episode, share it with your sleep deprived bestie, because we all deserve a little more beauty sleep. And listen to my previous episode, episode 63, and you can hear about how three moms take care of themselves. A lot of these tips that we talked about today are things that they shared in their routines their health and wellness routines and you can hopefully take some of their stories and learn how you can implement something into your life to find what exactly works for you to help improve your sleep and your confidence in all the areas of your life.
Ciera :I hope you found this episode helpful and I will talk to you next week. Hi, my beautiful listeners, I am looking to mentor. If you have been interested in owning your own beauty business, please reach out to me, send me a DM. I'm looking to mentor people in owning a business, whether that's just focusing on skincare, focusing on makeup. Maybe you're interested in starting your own podcast or some sort of platform to promote self-love and beauty and confidence. Please reach out to me. I want to mentor some people, so send me a message at confidently beautiful podcast on instagram, or you can send me an email at confidentlybeautifulwithciera@ gmail. com. Thanks for listening. Connect with me on Instagram at confidentlybeautifulpodcast, and share this episode with someone in your life who could use a little reminder of just how amazing they already are. Stay confidently beautiful.