Fighting fatigue: all the lessons learnt at Estée Lauder’s Vogue Codes event

As Vogue Codes began to wrap up, after taking a series of capital cities across the country, The Apartment at Hotel Centennial in Woollahra played host orchestrated by Vogue Australia, and presented by Estée Lauder. The purpose of the morning? highlighting the alignment between beauty and STEM, and noting the importance of mastering a healthy night-time routine.

Intent on teaching women how to own the night, Estée Lauder invited insomniac-turned-clinical neuroscientist Chelsea Pottenger to the stage to talk all things sleep. After outlining the risks posed by sleep deprivation, which can include cardiovascular disease, alzheimer’s disease, and a weakened immune system, Pottenger let the audience in on five sleep hacks that promise to help you get a good night’s rest.

The expert also confirmed that yes, beauty sleep is a real thing, and while applying Estée Lauder’s Advanced Night Repair serum (famously regarded as beauty sleep in a bottle) will help, a healthy amount of shut eye is paramount for your health. Here, Vogue reflects on the five ways Pottenger recommends you retrain your sleeping patterns, starting today.

Wear less to bed
Yes, you read that correctly. Pottenger confirms the less you wear to bed, the better, as diving into a deep REM sleep requires a drop in your body’s core temperature. Going nude, while sporting a pair of socks is ideal, as socks increase blood flow in the feet, in turn encouraging heat loss and promoting the correct kind of shuteye. Having a warm epsom salt bath before bed also works to drop your body’s temperature via what’s known as a thermal heat dump once you get out, so take your pick.

Stop using screens 30 minutes before bed
Screens emit blue and red lights that lull your senses into thinking it’s daytime, meaning your melatonin levels fail to increase, and you’ll likely struggle to get to sleep. If you do manage to get some rest, there is a high chance that very little of it is deep enough to be REM sleep. In other words, it’s nowhere near as beneficial as it should be. To combat this, put your screens away 30 minutes before bed, and try reading a book instead.

Limit your alcohol intake
While Pottenger acknowledges that you deserve to treat yourself from time to time, she advises that if you want to drink alcohol from Monday to Friday, you limit yourself to no more than two standard drinks. Any more than that and you’ll suffer from rebound insomnia, which means you’ll also get very little REM sleep.

Practice parasympathetic breathing
Pottenger also explained the importance of parasympathetic breathing, a technique used to relax both your mind and body, and ideally one that you would engage in before your head hits the pillow. To activate the breathing technique, stand up, hold your fingertips to your belly button so that you can feel you stomach rise and fall, breathe in through your nostrils for a total of four seconds as your stomach expands, hold that breath for two seconds, then breathe out for another six seconds. Yes, it’s really that easy.

Cut back on caffeine after midday
To ensure caffeine is completely out of your system by the time you would normally head to bed, it’s vital you limit your intake to the morning, cutting back on coffee and caffeinated beverages after midday. Why? Because according to Pottenger, the after-life of caffeine is roughly six hours, and while it’s still in your body, it’s inhibiting the release of GABA, a neurotransmitter in your brain that manages the activity of your nervous system.

Now you heard the lady, after lathering on your Estée Lauder
Advanced Night Repair serum, follow these top tips to ensure you’re getting all the beauty sleep you need. Unless of course you want dull and tired looking skin? Because a lack of sleep limits the skin’s ability to recover moisture, in turn paving the way for dark circles under your eyes, as well as dryness and an increase in visible wrinkles. No? We didn’t think so.Click Here: Sports Water Bottles