The news just came in from the Netherlands in a study published in the journal Brain. Turns out that increasing the temperature of your skin—but not your core body temperature—just a little bit can help you achieve deeper, more restful sleep and avoid waking up too early in the morning.

These types of sleep problems are common among older folks. The reasoning behind the phenomenon is that skin warming has been shown to stimulate areas in the brain that are involved in regulating sleep. Studies on skin in recent years have been turning up all sorts of fascinating discoveries. We’ve learned a great deal about how skin is like the brain’s twin. It can create messages for the brain to respond to without needing the brain to act first.

To think that a little warmth on your skin can effect change in the brain and plunge you into top-quality sleep is, well…amazing. Gives a whole new meaning to wrapping yourself up in a blankie. It’s not always easy to find sure-fire ways to solve sleep problems, especially in people who suffer from insomnia or who can’t seem to get through the night and early morning hours without waking. The elderly are famous for their lack of quality sleep and inability to stay asleep for long periods of time.

So can this recent study offer a new way to promote better sleep? I think it may be worth trying. Keep the ambient bedrooms temps cool but keep the blankies close. Sleep tight.

I’m not the first person to tell you that exercise is good for you. But if there’s one magic bullet for enhancing the quality of your sleep, it’s exercise. Because sleep and exercise are both vital signs of good health, if you can accomplish both well, you’re way ahead of the game. But now there’s more to this bit of advice if you’re a victim of insomnia: scheduling an exercise session in the late afternoon might be your magic bullet to end the sleeplessness.

A new study just came out pointing the benefits of late-day exercise on people who have trouble falling asleep.

Specifically, people who engaged in moderate aerobic exercise in the evenings, such as 50 minutes on the treadmill, fell asleep more quickly, woke less often, and increased their total sleep time. Sorry, but no sleep-promoting benefits were reported for strength training or a heavy workout.

This is not news to me and I hope this study, which confirms earlier findings, further encourages natural ways to support healthy sleep rather than resorting to drugs or exercise-avoidance (people with insomnia are not usually advised to work out in the evenings because of the potential rousing effect of exercise).

Why Aerobic Exercise Promotes Sleep

Not everyone experiences the same sleep benefits from exercise, but when you think about it, people who suffer from insomnia aren’t usually the athletes and active individuals. (The only instance I’ve seen is where athletes over-train and for some reason have a hard time turning their mind off at night, or they are so used to exercising that on their “off days” their body craves that exercise to help with sleep.)

To the contrary, most people who complain of sleep problems lead sedentary lives and don’t practice a regular exercise routine. Aerobic exercise has shown to aid in sleep primarily by doing two things:

1. helping you fall asleep quicker; and
2. plunging you into deep (or delta) sleep for a longer period of time, which is where you need to be to feel refreshed and restored the next day.

Studies on people who participate in aerobic activities show that they have a tendency to secrete more growth hormone at night, which aids in repairing and rejuvenating the body.   

How exactly does this happen?

One current reasoning behind exercise’s effects on sleep centers of the brain is the thermogenic hypothesis, which states that exercise promotes sleep by heating the body or brain.

When you work out (again, it has to be an aerobic workout for at least 20 to 30 minutes), your body’s core temperature rises a couple of degrees and stays that way for about 4 to 5 hours. When it cools back down, your core temperature will decrease to a point lower than had you not worked out at all.

It’s this drop in body temperature that is theorized to promote going to sleep more quickly as well as deep, sound sleep. Hence, the late-afternoon, early-evening workout could be the ideal time. Those with insomnia who don’t exercise would do well to experiment with late-day workouts and see if they do the trick. 

How an Insomniac Can Get the Most Out of Exercise’s Sleep Benefits

• Get a physical and rule out any medical issues that may be causing your insomnia, or that you need to address before getting active if you haven’t been so in a while.
• Experiment with exercise at different times of the day, starting with late-day workouts about 5 to 6 hours before bedtime. Record the quality of your sleep in a sleep journal. Find out, for example, if you sleep better after morning, noon, or evening workouts. Exercise can be stimulating if you do it too close to bedtime.
• Be sure to get your heart rate up for at least 20 to 30 minutes most days of the week. Even if they don’t have immediate sleep benefits, strength training and stretching are a must for total body fitness.
• Build your fitness level slowly; don’t jump into a strenuous fitness routine too quickly.
• Exercise in bright outdoor light if possible. This time of the year, it’s pretty easy to have ample light in the evenings for a brisk stroll around the neighborhood.

Don’t stress too much over finding the perfect time to exercise. That’s unrealistic. It’s hard enough to worry about fitting the time in to schedule a workout than it is to time it perfectly.

How much exercise will affect your sleep will be a factor of the level of intensity at which you work out, how long you work out, as well as how fit you are to begin with. Just go do it, though. Any exercise is good exercise… and your sleep will enjoy it.

Now this is crazy stuff: have you ever seen the popular reality show "Deadliest Catch" on the Discovery Channel? It is one of my favorites; I seem to just find it fascinating. It’s about Alaskan king crab fishermen up in the Bering Sea, and what they risk to get their grubstake.

Seriously, this puts The Perfect Storm to shame, and I honestly don’t know how they even manage to video tape some of this madness. Picture yourself on a fishing boat (try not to get seasick). You’ve got a 24-hour shift in front of you (no naps!)… as well as 40-foot waves thumping against the boat and sloshing you around constantly, 80-mile-per-hour winds whipping against every inch of you, and oh yes, subfreezing weather. You hope you can at least feel something in your hands so you can handle the 700-pound crab pots that are banging against the deck. The injury rate? One-hundred percent, from limbs to lives. 

Why, you might ask, would someone choose to do this?

Well, the payoff can be huge for the guys who brave this nearly superhuman task: jackpot crab pots can garner millions of dollars worth of highly-prized king crabs. (Yeah, the next time you order king crab in a well-to-do restaurant, stop and think for a moment what it took to get it there.) Boats that aren’t successful in placing their pots in the hot spots can come home empty-handed, or so light-handed that their catch only covers the boat’s operating expenses. 

I think it’s crazy, but the allure must go deeper than the potential money. It must tap that proverbial “man versus nature” thing on some level. Many of these fishers come from families that have been in this business their whole lives—they know of nothing else and have no desire whatsoever to try doing anything else. To them, crab fishing not a job, it’s a life. One of the captains of a boat didn’t even think about how crazy his job was until the cameras started showing up to tape the show! Clearly, these people are doing what they’ve always done, and we’re finally allowed “in” to see what it is they do.

One request: can they get more fishers on board to share the duties so everyone can get a good night’s rest?

I think every captain would laugh at my suggestion. It appears to be a badge of honor that they can go days without sleep, even if this entails dangerous mistakes.

It is amazing to me that sleep deprivation is both a method of torture in some countries and a badge of honor all at the same time.

Some episodes have featured their contests for the first person to fall asleep and where (please not out on the edge of the deck). Occasionally the ships’ captains fall asleep at the wheel during rough weather.   

This isn’t the only profession where sleep deprivation is considered a badge of honor. There are many other people out there who brave sleepless nights and odd working hours, like medical residents and surgeons, college or graduate students, air traffic controllers, truck drivers, loggers, farmers, start-up entrepreneurs… just about any workaholic who can’t fathom sleeping a full night’s sleep when there’s work to be done.

Many of the world’s most dangerous professions entail multiple “badges of honor.” People who do the fishing, hunting, and gathering for us folks are among the toughest and bravest individuals. They do extremely dangerous jobs that are in many cases conducted in an environment that is largely beyond their control. Nearly half of all fatal work injuries occurred among workers who drive or move material around for a living. Truck drivers, forklift operators, trash collectors, and cabbies are all part of this group. A sleepy truck driver or forklift operator having an accident is practically cliché.

According to a survey reported by CNN, the fishing industry is a perennial leader as measured by death rate; drowning is the most common cause of death in this industry (they can fall asleep first, then fall overboard!), but fishermen also suffer from fatal accidents in handling some of the heavy equipment that the modern fisheries employ—heavy equipment that requires fast-thinking, and an alert, awake mind.

Is it “brave” to avoid sleep for work? No. But unfortunately our social mores and industry prerogatives haven’t changed.

Would the worlds “most dangerous jobs” (which sometimes gets labeled as the world's “worst jobs” because of this fact) become better if we set new standards that prevented fatal mistakes? Yes. I believe so, and we can do that starting with just one: making restful sleep a priority.

So I propose a new badge of honor: one that respects hard work and hard sleep. The two can work miracles. Oh, and let’s not forget hard play. Now that’s a recipe for living “on the edge.” But I have to admit, I do find the show fascinating!

Are you an insomniac? If so, then which kind? The one who flat-out can’t ever get to sleep? Or are you the type who fall asleep okay but then has a restless night of tossing and turning as you struggle to stay in dreamland? If you’re the latter, there’s hope—maybe.

Tossing and Turning -- A Genetic Mutation?

I just read about a new study that details how scientists have found mutations in two genes that could clue us into understanding insomnia better. These two genes control electrical excitability in a particular area in the brain known to be involved in sleep.

Of course, the researchers were looking at mice genes, but this could give us a model for understanding how a genetic mutation could partly be to blame for those restless nights. And it could lead us to better treatments in the future. But this would certainly come with a few, shall I say, caveats.

The Causes of Insomnia are Sometimes Hard to Identify

No one who suffers from insomnia likes to hear that it’s a “vague” disorder. But it can be hard to pinpoint exactly what’s causing it.

For some, an underlying medical condition or chronic pain could be the culprit.

For others, it could be psychiatric problems like depression, or another sleep disorder like restless leg syndrome (RLS).

The other hard part about insomnia is there is no easy “cure.” In fact, there may never be. You have to address all the factors that could be channeling the sleeplessness. With stress running our 24-7 lives today, it’s no wonder insomniacs are on the rise.

But, what if some of those insomniacs could blame (partly or wholly) a mutant gene?

Insomnia Can Have Multiple Sources

I think this opens the conversation up to an even wider playing field. Much wider. This could make this particular area of study fuzzier.

To that I pose this question: Assuming you could “turn off” that gene, would someone who has this mutation and insomnia then be insomnia-free? 

Is seriously doubt it. Call me cynical. Sure, some lucky few who could blame all of their sleepless nights on a dysfunctional gene would be just that—lucky. 

I think we owe the vast majority of insomnia to other causes, from medical to psychological to plain practical (screwing up our sleep cycles by staying up too late, working too long, and taking all of our worries to bed with us).

I challenge anyone who has trouble getting a good night’s sleep—no matter what kind of sleep trouble you have—to go on vacation to a truly relaxing place and see if you still have the same sleep issues on the third day of your bliss.

Okay, okay… so a trip to Hawaii or Bora Bora may not be in the cards. Here are my top 5 ways to ensure (not guarantee, but close enough to it!) a good night.

Top 5 Sleep Tips from Dr. Breus

1.    Set aside a Power Down hour before bedtime. Stop work. No chores. Do something relaxing like take a warm bath, engage in light reading, or watch TV if that’s relaxing for you (avoid the news channels).

2.    Go to bed and get up at the same time 7 days a week—no matter what!

3.   Schedule in at least 30 minutes of exercise most days of the week. You can break up these minutes into pockets of 10 minutes if you have to. Here’s an idea: Expose yourself to bright, morning natural light (a good thing for calibrating the body’s natural clock) with a brisk walk before breakfast, then again at lunch, and after dinner.

4.    Avoid caffeine after 2 pm in the afternoon. Don’t forget hidden sources like soda, and some headache medicines.

5.    Adopt some mind-, body-, and sleep-friendly practices like meditation, massage, or yoga. 

If you know that pain or a medical condition is affecting your sleep, including meds that you take to treat that condition, speak candidly with your doctor about it. You may have options you have not explored yet to address both the medical condition and your insomnia.

For more ideas, and a specific day-by-day program that you can tailor to your lifestyle to help you achieve restful sleep, I encourage you to grab a copy of my book.

Good night!

Recently, I was reading an article online about the health problems plaguing Americans as worries about mounting debt trigger extreme stress. Rather than blaming things like back pain, headaches, ulcers, depression, and even heart attacks on a specific underlying medical cause, all fingers are pointing toward plain old stress.

Stress is a fact of life...

...and unfortunately debt has also become a fact of life for many of us. 

Compounding the problem are recent economic woes as the real estate market sinks, cost of living expenses rise, and just driving the car to the gym or yoga class to work out those stress-related kinks is getting expensive.

According to an index tied to a recent AP-AOL survey, debt stress is 14 percent higher this year. Revolving consumer debt, almost all from credit cards, now totals $957 billion, compared with $800 billion in 2004, according to the Federal Reserve. Argh!

Debt, Stress and Sleep Problems

I don’t have to outline all the statistics that point to our heightened stress level. It’s obvious to everyone living in the 21st century, unless you’re in denial or have miraculously found the cure to conquering stress. But what the recent article and survey did not indicate is how much this stress is affecting people’s sleep.

I have no doubts that today’s intense stress levels are adversely affecting the quality and quantity of our sleep. Not only do we take our worries to bed with us, fueling insomnia, but we also delay going to bed as we tool around the Internet late at night paying bills or seeking support through others on the Web.

This sets us up for feeling more stressed out when sleep deprivation lowers our thresholds for enduring high stress levels. Our moods dim, our immune systems plummet, our body’s hormonal clocks tick a little off, our hunger and satiety signals change, our ability to learn new things weakens, our concentration dwindles, our physical bodies miss out on a much-needed time-out to fully recover for the next day, and on and on.

Sleeping More Can Help You Cope

I could list a litany of problems associated with chronic sleep deprivation. I can also create an even longer list of benefits that come with getting a good night’s rest.

And one of them would be this: being able to cope with and manage something as difficult and stressful as serious debt.

With a good night’s rest, you feel energized, upbeat, refreshed, and focused. You can problem solve more easily and find ways to work through your debt so it doesn’t become a pain in the neck, the back, your head, your heart, and soul. That said, let me suggest...

3 Ways to Conquer Debt through Sleep:

1. Set aside 15 minutes a day to focus on your debt and making plans to diminish it—but avoid doing this at night. Schedule it early in the day or first thing in the morning, and be done with it.
   
   
2. If your debt worries keep you up at night, start a Worry Journal. Have it by your bedside, and write in it as your stressful thoughts emerge. Then close the book and close your mind off those thoughts. If solutions or things to do in relation to those worries crop up as you write, record those.
   
   
3. Physical exercise is a great sleep promoter and stress reducer. If you find yourself avoiding exercise to “get more done” during the day, it’s time to re-evaluate. Be sure to schedule in at least 30 minutes of physical exercise no matter what. It can be as simple as going for a brisk walk in the evening.

Don’t let debt get your sleep. Becoming debt free will happen much more effortlessly if you have sweet dreams.

Obstructive sleep apnea is the most common form of the disorder; breathing becomes halted or very shallow for short bursts of time during sleep. Because of this, the levels of oxygen drop in the blood as not enough gets in through the nose or mouth. Imagine what this could mean for someone with heart or other vascular challenges.

Why Flying is More Dangerous for People with Apnea

It makes sense that the environment on a plane could exacerbate someone’s sleep apnea. (It exacerbates a lot of things, like people’s patience and flexibility.) Oxygen and pressure levels can change, and compounding the problem is the fact people who suffer from sleep apnea generally have higher metabolic demands during flights. In other words, their bodies—especially their hearts—have to work harder to stay fully oxygenated. It doesn’t help that many people who suffer from sleep apnea have another problem: obesity. The two often go hand in hand.

How Will This Affect Air Travel?

Flying isn’t as like it used to be. We now have to deal with smaller seats, packed planes, long waits, no food, and grumpy fellow passengers in general. It’s not pleasant to sit next to a stranger who begins to snore and creep over into your space.

Snoring is a hallmark sign of obstructive sleep apnea. If the obesity rates continue to climb, will we have to set new standards for air travel? Wider seats? Extra oxygen tanks? Extra defibrillators? Cautionary signs in front of our seats that say “Attention Snorers or People with Apnea: Please Avoid Sleeping."?

I know this all sounds so extreme, but it’s true that as a nation our obesity is raising the risk for all kinds of health challenges—many of which can be compounded on an airplane. If only people took to heart the fact that weight loss can cure so many problems, and in some cases, sleep apnea included.

But, if gas prices continue to soar, we could see an historic pullback in the number of people who can afford the luxury of flying. I’ve heard some speculate that flying will become an extravagance for the common person. The only jet setters left will be business types with corporate credit footing the bill. In any event, here’s some advice:

5 Ways to Make Air Travel Safe(r) If You Snore

1. Eat well the morning of your flight and carry healthy snacks. Avoid fatty foods that can raise blood cholesterol and tax your system.
2. Get yourself a C-pillow to support your head so you can nap comfortably in your seat, this will also keep your head from bobbing and cutting off your air.
3. Avoid napping entirely if you cannot get into a comfortable position that prevents snoring. If you’re seriously overweight, consider buying a business class ticket so you have more room.
4. Don’t do anything stressful during the flight. Enjoy this time to relax, read something light, or have a conversation with the person next to you.
5. If the cabin pressure changes and you sense a higher heart rate, focus on taking a few deep belly breaths. Breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth. Let your belly expand outward as you inhale, and back to resting position as you exhale.

Have a nice flight.

More than 18 million Americans suffer from sleep apnea, a sleep disorder that causes your airway to collapse during sleep. If you’re among those millions, then each night your breathing essentially gets cut off multiple times, and so does that restful sleep. Untreated sufferers of sleep apnea never feel fully rested, which can result in chronic sleep deprivation that can be life-threatening.

Symptoms of Sleep Apnea

You could have apnea if:

• You snore
• You wake up with a headache
• You're moody most days
• You are tired to the point of falling asleep
• You have constant congestion
• Someone has seen you stop breathing

But there’s some good news to report: chemicals found in green tea may be able to prevent some of the cognitive problems that can happen with obstructive sleep apnea.

Green Tea Can Help Your Memory

Cognitive problems, you’re wondering? That’s right, sleep apnea isn’t just about missing out on a few breaths of air through the night. All those intermittent moments of oxygen deprivation add up, and your body isn’t able to reach a level of sleep that is restorative—where the brain can essentially re-boot itself and prepare for the next day when it will need to learn new things, solve problems, and tap its memory card.

Other Benefits of Green Tea and Polyphenols

The benefits of green tea don’t end with the brain boost, though. The researchers who discovered this recently also confirmed what we already know about the positive effects green tea can have on us. Its rich supply of polyphenols acts as a powerful antioxidant to help tame the flames of inflammation and oxidative stress—two big agers in the body.

So yes, green tea may help you beat sleep apnea deficits, but the bonus is you can give yourself a good dose of anti-aging ingredients, too.

Green Tea and Weight Loss

In a recent post, I talked about ways to lose weight (so you can sleep better at night). Nixing sugar-laden drinks is an easy way to steer clear of a boatload of unnecessary calories.

Regardless of whether or not you suffer from sleep apnea, give green tea a try for a week. Switch out your sodas and juices for a thermos of hot or cold green tea. Sip on it all day and avoid other drinks (don’t worry, tea is also a source of water).

At the end of the week, check in with yourself: do you feel sharper-minded and maybe a pound or two lighter?

What I’d like to know is if other sources of polyphenols can also be as effective. These include berries, beer, grapes (including wine), olive oil, chocolate/cocoa, walnuts, peanuts, pomegranates, yerba mate, and other fruits and vegetables.

One thing is for sure: drinking green tea is something you can do all day long (try de-caff in the afternoons). Not sure the same could be said for the other polyphenol friends.

A thriving career. A house with 2.5 kids, the average. Time to exercise. A vibrant social life. A great romantic relationship, whether married or not. And you sleep like a baby at night for a full X-hours, whatever you need to feel like a million bucks the next day. Is this possible? Is this a total fantasy?

I’m not trying to state the obvious or beg the obvious answer. My gut feeling is that having it all, including sleep, is a tall order. And recent research proves it. A Canadian article I read online outlines researchers’ data about the relationship between sleep and lifestyle, which includes a number of things like employment status, gender, and marital status.

Do you commute a long way to work? Do you work full-time (i.e., long hours)? Do you have kids, especially ones under the age of 15? If yes, then chances are you don’t get as much sleep as someone who answers no to most of these questions. And I don’t think you have to be Canadian to fit the bill of what these researchers found. In fact, in America I think we tend to fare far worse.

There’s nothing very revolutionary about these results. Other interesting findings to note:

• The more money you make, the less sleep you get. (More money usually means more work, more stress, more of everything but sleep.)
• Men tend to get less sleep than women, but it’s the women who complain more of not being able to fall asleep easily.
• Men who exercise sleep better, but women who exercise don’t sleep as much as women who don’t. The reasoning behind this makes sense: a woman who carves out time to exercise could be taking time away from sleep. The payoff, though, is that the women who do make time for exercise don’t have as much trouble getting to sleep. This has a scientific explanation: exercise is a great promoter of restful sleep.

It’s hard to know what to do with a study like this. It points out the obvious, and I’m not about to tell someone to sacrifice having children, working full time, and making more money for sleep. But surely this kind of news helps call out what we can attempt to modify in our lives for the sake of restful Zs. After all, being well-rested is what makes our jobs easier, our quest to be fit more doable, and our capacity to parent and deal with the hassles of life, including stress, much bigger.

So with that in mind, here are some questions to ask yourself. Your answers may help you to see how you actually can have it all—or as much of “all” as possible:

• Can you create better boundaries at work so you aren’t over-working yourself every single day? (Yes.) Remember, it’s okay to pull long hours once in a while. But don’t make a habit of it.
• Can you make the need for exercise not infringe on your need for sleep? (Yes.) If fitting time to exercise means cutting back on sleep, try cutting back on something else in your life—go to bed a little earlier if you’re an AM exerciser or leave work earlier so you’re not watching the 11:00 news while on the Stairmaster.
• Can you equally share your parental duties with the other parent? (Yes.) Don’t feel like you’re the one who has to handle everything 24/7. Go 50/50. Each of you can pick days when one parent takes on a smaller percentage of the parental role so you can catch up with yourself and recharge your batteries. Then switch.
• Can you knock off two or three things that you had on your To Do list and move them to tomorrow? (Yes.)
• Can you think of at least ONE thing—just one—that you can push to next week so you can devote more time to sleep this week?  (Notice this should be a recurring question each week!)

I’ll leave you with this: can you imagine being rich, fit, and well-rested? Yes you can.

It doesn’t get much grosser than this recent report that sent chills down my spine. After “Dateline” NBC did a show on used mattresses, the International Sleep Products Association (ISPA) commended them last week for exposing the hazards of buying a mattress that does not meet federal and state laws.

Yes, you read that right: there are such things as USED mattresses that are “renovated” and sold like new. In fact, they are sold as NEW when underneath the outer fabric cover on top is a dirty old mattress, probably teaming with bed bugs!

You can go here to read more on this report, but be careful. It just might scare you and cause you to feel itchy all over. Bed bug infestations are rampant in all 50 states now. But it’s not just the bugs that can get you. How about mold, mildew, and other allergens?  Old oils and skin cells from strangers. Digested blood and excrement from old bugs. Bacteria.

Yes, the seller may tell you that the mattress has been sterilized, but how do you really know? If you ask “Does this bed have bed bugs?” do you really think a mattress seller is going to say yes?! It’s worse than buying a used car that turns out to be a lemon. Way worse.

I don’t care how long you have to save your pennies for a new mattress. There are plenty of affordable mattresses out there, fresh off the assembly line. You sleep on this thing for a third of your life. Don’t you deserve a new one just for you? Put it this way: what would you do to avoid wearing used underwear or a using a used toothbrush every day?

Thought so.

So, with that all in mind, here are a few tips to avoid the used mattress and get a good one:

• Shop at established mattress stores. Check the Better Business Bureau if you have any doubts.  Get referrals from friends and family. Mattresses sold at established department stores are less likely to have problems versus those coming from small, mom & pop shops.
• Be direct with your salesman. Insist that you buy only a 100 percent new mattress—not a refurbished, renovated, or reconditioned one.
• For the best deal, wait for sales.
• Make your sales agreement includes a no-substitutions clause so if the bed you ordered is out of stock, you won’t be surprised with another type. When it’s delivered, look for damage, and request a replacement if necessary. If they bend it around a corner it can cause significant damage to the wire frame. Make sure you get what you ordered; check the mattress name with the invoice.
• If it looks too good to be true—“New Mattress for only $49.99 with box spring”!—it probably is. 

A story like this gives whole new meaning to the term “dirt cheap,” doesn’t it?

These days, it doesn’t take much to get a brow lift or a Botox injection. Does your forehead have tracks running across it? Do your cheeks sink in a little? Are your lips on the thin side? Well, there’s a fix for all that… but you won’t necessarily look twentysomething again. I guarantee it. You may fall pray to the “trout pout”; the frozen forehead; the surprised- or sinister-looking browline; and plastic portrait worthy of a wax museum.

Several sites have emerged to poke fun at celebrities’ plastic surgeries gone wrong—or at least they appear to have gone overboard. Sometimes it’s not even surgery that does it, but just too many trips to the happy dermatologist with a needle in hand. Maybe these people actually like the way they look. Who knows. The point is, modern technology can only do so much. And old technology still works: eat well, exercise, take good care of your skin without resorting to weird products and procedures, and get a good night’s sleep.

Ah, but not many people mention this last secret.

What if You Got Enough Sleep?

Here’s something to think about: if you slept like a baby every single night since birth, and got every hour you needed, how would you look at age 70? I know, that’s not going to happen. But it’s a thought. Imagine what you’d look like if your skin were never damaged by the sun. Or you never smiled. Or you never ate doughnuts and fast food. Or you never…lived a real life.

I’m going to take a guess that if truly slept well for the majority of your life, you’d age beautifully and could even take about 5 years off your face by the time you’re 70. We know that sleep is our zone of rejuvenation. It allows us to replenish our cells, spur new cellular growth (like collagen!), and feel refreshed and energetic enough the next day to make healthy choices, such as working out and eating well. All of which bodes well for keeping up appearances.

Besides, those who look like they are “aging gracefully” win my vote. (As an aside, I write this post on the same day that the “exhaustion” factor in the Clinton vs. Obama war is making headlines. The candidates are getting sloppy with speeches, forgetful of past events -- Clinton in Bosnia -- and noticeably haggard. Obama’s hair is grayer now than it was just a year ago. All this before even potentially getting into the White House!)

Unfortunately, there seems to be an inverse relationship happening between sleep and cosmetic surgery. Sleep isn’t very popular these days, and yet cosmetic surgery increasingly is. Nearly 12 million cosmetic procedures were performed in 2007 — a 7 percent increase from 2006 and a 59 percent increase from 2000. These procedures are like Band-Aids on our sleep deprivation.

From the looks of it, at least some Hollywood starlets seem to be getting their Zs. Which ones? Well, I’ll leave that up to you. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I invite you to write back and cast your vote for the “best ager”, and maybe we can ask how many hours of sleep they get each night. I bet they rank sleep high on their priorities.