3 Proven Scientific Ways to Get Beauty Recovery Sleep
I’m sure we all know the basics of getting a good night’s sleep – sleep in a cool, dark room with minimal noise. But do we know how to get more recovery sleep? There’s a reason it’s also called ‘beauty sleep’ – after all, sleeping well is one of the keys to looking good. 
According to the National Sleep Foundation, between 10% and 30% of people globally struggle with insomnia. I’ve had my own challenges over the years with chronically low energy levels which led me on a quest to get the highest possible recovery sleep.
Experimenting with Sleep
In this article, I share my experiences with you and also, for me, what I found are the three most significant ways to increase my own recovery sleep. I hope this may inspire you to try these lifestyle actions if you haven’t already, and if you too are struggling to get the recommended 3-4 hours of recovery sleep each night. However, even if you have already tried them, there’s still something for you in this article as I give some insight into the science and research that’s been conducted.
Essentially, I treated myself as a guinea pig and took each of the below lifestyle actions in turn, noticing any patterns by tracking my REM and deep sleep using a monitoring device. Here are my findings (‘KM Experience’) together with any supporting scientific data (‘The Science’) and any recommendations.
About Recovery Sleep
The Science
Sleep is known to be a neurologically dynamic behaviour (i.e. the brain’s ability to reorganise, grow and modify neural networks) and there are many biological functions associated with sleep, including those that lead to restoration of body and mind. Sleep is regulated by two key processes:
- Homeostasis: keeps the body in balance so your body measures your sleep debt and adjusts the amount of sleep you need based on previous nights.
- Circadian rhythm: ensures your optimal internal (biological) time for sleep and wakefulness. This is your body’s internal clock, influenced by light exposure and other cues.
In mammals, sleep occurs in cycles and in particular, recovery sleep, i.e. rapid eye movement (REM) and non-REM (NREM) sleep. REM sleep promotes mental restoration, e.g. memory consolidation, synaptic pruning, and waste removal. NREM sleep (stage 3: deep sleep) promotes physical restoration, e.g. tissue repair and growth, growth hormone release and energy restoration.
It’s well-known that prolonged sleep deprivation is fatal and can therefore have a large impact on our skin. So, to look good, we need good sleep.
Sleep is influenced by several factors, from physical and mental, including stress levels, to environmental factors, such as temperature, light, noise levels, carbon dioxide (CO2) levels, etc.
Now, let’s dive into three lifestyle habits which I tried (before I knew the science) and found these to be the most significant.
1. Check Your Stress Levels
KM Experience
I’ve noticed there’s a direct correlation between the number of hours of recovery sleep and my stress levels – meaning, the greater my stress levels the less recovery sleep I’ll get.
For sure, any food, drink, spices, medicines, etc. that we ingest will either lower or increase our stress levels. So, if I’ve taken in something that increases my stress levels during the day, I can be sure my sleep won’t be fabulous that night.
It’s the same for exercise and, of course, emotional stress.
The Science
Sleep and stress resilience have a bidirectional direct correlation. In other words, higher stress resilience leads to better sleep quality and, on the other hand, lower stress resilience leads to worse sleep quality. Cortisol also suppresses REM sleep, meaning your brain won’t be able to recover as much. A study by The University of Sheffield demonstrated that improving sleep was associated with better mental health, reduced anxiety and stress, which again leads to higher stress resilience and therefore better sleep.
Recommendation
Find ways to reduce your stress levels before bedtime. In another article I’ll deal with scientifically proven strategies on how to do this. This is really essential to master if you wish to have a stressless night’s sleep as well as higher recovery winks and, in turn, higher stress resilience.
2. Take a Hot Shower Before Bed
KM Experience
I used to take a shower in the morning, but due to my various allergies to pollen, dust, etc. I decided to start taking a warm/hot shower in the evening to remove them. It also feels amazing to get into bed when you’re freshly clean. It wasn’t long before I realised this habit actually lowered my stress levels, especially before bed. Now I see it cited in other reputable press articles… and for me it’s really relaxing.
The Science
Temperature Circadian Rhythm
A systematic data analysis was conducted by the biomedical engineering department at The University of Texas in Austin, which found that taking a warm shower or bath before bedtime is recommended as a simple means of improving sleep.
Medical research has already established that sleep and our body’s core temperature is regulated by our circadian rhythm, and has an elevated daytime but lower nighttime temperature. The latter of which is accredited to melatonin production, which makes you feel sleepy. Accordingly, changes to the circadian rhythm, e.g. by disease, work schedule and trans meridian travel, is commonly associated with episodic or chronic insomnia – prolonged sleep onset latency (SOL) and/or poor sleep.
Paradoxically, taking a warm/hot shower lowers the body temperature by dilating the blood vessels all over the body which moves the core body heat to the peripheral sites of the hands and feet, which subsequently cools the body down.
Relaxation
Warm water can decrease certain stress hormones and the heat from the water helps to lower blood pressure which can contribute to better sleep and aid in the body’s ability to remove toxins.
Recommendation
Try taking a 10-minute warm/hot shower about 1-2 hours before bed. Also, experiment with your shower duration to find your optimal time, although 10 minutes is generally recommended.
3. Be Consistent
KM Experience
It requires a lot of discipline going to bed and waking up at the same time, but it does pay off. It took me quite a while to get this consistency because of all the temptations around us: Netflix, being super comfortable in bed, feeling tired, etc. Ironically, sticking to the same times builds discipline, and being disciplined about the times builds consistency.
The Science
Going to bed and waking up at the same time each day helps to regulate your circadian rhythm or body’s internal body clock. Why is it important to regulate it? There are a number of reasons:
- regulates your sleep/wake cycle, ensuring you get the right restorative sleep at the right time (i.e. REM and deep sleep),
- influences your hormones,
- affects digestion and nutrient adsorption,
- impacts bodily temperature which is key for regulation of metabolic processes and also sleep.
Circadian rhythmicity, together with sleep homeostasis, shapes the timing and length of the sleep-wake cycle in young and older people and in men and women. In other words, your body’s natural biological times to go to sleep and to wake up as well as any sleep debt that gets accrued during waking hours.
So, this ‘sleep-wake cycle’ is driven by the circadian rhythm and this cycle is also closely associated with the melatonin rhythm (i.e. when melatonin is released) and the core body temperature rhythm (i.e. the body temperature being warmer during the day vs cooler at night).
Clearly, disruptions in the circadian rhythm, i.e. the timing and duration of sleep, may be related to circadian rhythm sleep disorders, insomnia, hypersomnia, etc.
Recommendation
For nighttime: Try and set alarms in the evening. You could set two: the first to tell you it’s time to wind-down what you’re doing; the second to tell you to start getting ready for bed. These alarms clearly need to be at the same time each day.
For the morning: I find the sound of a brutal alarm not pleasant, so I use a lamp which wakes me up gradually with increasing light and the sound of birds. Then, once it’s reached its maximum, I also set a brutal alarm to say: “Time’s up – get up!”.
Finding What Works for You
I hope you’ve found this article useful and that you’ve discovered some tried & tested, scientifically proven ways that could help you get the best recovery sleep possible. These tactics work for me, and are clearly backed up by science. But it’s important that you find what works for you. Remember, it may take time to find what works best, so don’t give up as you’ll be substantially rewarded.
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