Hello my fellow sleeping beauties. I have been neglectful in my duties of updating you on how things are going in my quest to conquer my sleep problems and harness the amazing powers of sleep including the benefits of sleeping on my back instead of my stomach and/or my sides.
Let’s just say that I have been struggling a bit in other areas of my life and it has affected my ability to stay on top of other things. But I have managed during this time to get a few nights of good sleep. I can’t claim that I’ve had any nights of sound sleep but I did manage a few stretches of good sleep. And as always, my face benefited from getting at least 3 nights in a row of sleeping at least 8 hours and protecting my face from sleep wrinkles(albeit not by sleeping on my back).
So yes, you would think that I am sleeping on my back like a pro by now, but I am not. Because I have not been trying as diligently. What I have been doing instead, is trying to find ways to protect my face while sleeping on my sides. I use a body pillow. Technically it’s my regular pillow, but I sleep with a pillow between my legs in the style of a body pillow, and I prop my head on the edge of another pillow so that only the side of my head (not the side of my face) is on the pillow. It works in part. By the time I am deep in sleep I end up tossing and turning and moving the pillow around, so my face still gets smashed against either the pillow or the bed. But each time that I wake up I re-position myself with the goal of protecting my face. Because I definitely still do believe that this is helping me to look better when I wake up in the morning. And I wish I had known how important this was a long time ago.
I still have not purchased an anti wrinkle pillow. I put one in my shopping cart yesterday but had to take it out because I spent several hundreds of dollars yesterday and by the time I was ready to check out at Nordstrom.com with my Nurse Jamie beauty pillow and some Charlotte Tilbury cosmetic items, it occurred to me that I had spent too much money already for the day, and I needed to take something out of the cart. So I removed the Nurse Jamie beauty pillow because I really want to try the Charlotte Tilbury magic foundation to see if it really works the magic that is claimed.
Trying to keep up your looks after a certain age is really tough. At least it is for me. I guess it’s not tough for every woman, because my own mother at 68 has better skin than I do. And she says that my grandmother at 80 had amazing skin. I guess I didn’t get the benefit of those genes. But I do have to say that my skin is looking better and better the more effort I make to take care of it. And this back sleeping thing, or more to the point, this protecting your face from sleep wrinkles thing is proving to be an important part of the process. I’m sure that protecting your face from sleep wrinkles makes an enormous difference in how you look, which makes a difference in how you feel,which cycles back around to making a difference in how you look. But I’m not sure it’s really all that necessary to train yourself to sleep on your back. I’m sure it’s better to sleep on your back, so if you can manage to get it conquered, then by all means do it, but if you’re struggling like me, I do think there are ways to keep your face protected even while you are sleeping on your side. Not sure about sleeping on your stomach and how you would protect your face. I’ve tried not using a pillow and just propping my head on my folded arms and allowing my face to be free from touching the bed. It works, but it’s hard to stay in that position all night. Maybe after I get my Nordstrom debt down a little bit I’ll try again to buy the beauty bear pillow. I still want to get the JuveRest pillow but for now, since the Nurse Jamie is more affordable, I’ll aim to get that instead.
Why am I posting this picture of Serena Williams that I found on her instagram? Because, she’s lying on her back in the picture, talking about the power of sleep in the caption. And she’s an amazing woman who is living proof that when you want something and you work hard enough for it and believe, you can make anything happen.
So I am inspired by Serena’s picture to work hard and believe that I can better my life and better myself. I don’t need to look haggard and worn and some days look decades older than I am in reality because of poor sleep and the impact of that on my mental, emotional and physical well-being. I’d still like to conquer sleeping on my back, because ultimately, that is the best way to safeguard your face when you sleep. But I think I’ll need to go ahead and get a specialized pillow for that. In the meantime, I’ll continue to try to protect my face while sleeping the way I default to sleeping every night.
I have a birthday coming up soon, so happy birthday to me. And to any of you who have a birthday coming up, happy birthday. Sleep well. Harness the power of sleep to transform all areas of your life.