The biggest health trend for 2017? Clean SLEEPING. You know about clean eating – now in a new book, Clean Beauty, Gwyneth Paltrow and her team of experts at Goop show you how the same approach can boost your sleep

• Gwyneth Paltrow says she gets at least seven or eight hours of sleep a night
• It plays a powerful role in determining your appetite and energy levels
• She says it should be your first priority – even before you think about your diet

By Gwyneth Paltrow And The Editors Of Goop
PUBLISHED: 18:34 EST, 18 December 2016 | UPDATED: 05:43 EST, 22 December 2016

 
You might think it’s just a midlife thing, but if you find yourself feeling irritable, anxious or depressed, if you get easily frustrated, forgetful or struggle to cope with stress like you used to, it could be because you’re not getting enough good-quality sleep.

The lifestyle I lead is based not just on clean eating, but also on clean sleeping: at least seven or eight hours of good, quality sleep — and ideally even ten.

Sleep plays such a powerful role in determining your appetite and energy levels that I believe it should be your first priority — even before you think about your diet.

Although I am eternally curious about health and wellness, I am by no means an expert myself, which is why I have built a great support team around me.

And, of course, what’s the point in doing all the research and trying things out if you’re not going to share what you’ve learned with your friends?

My nutrition expert Dr Frank Lipman has explained to me that poor-quality sleep can be unsettling for the metabolism and hormones, which can lead to weight gain, bad moods, impaired memory and brain fog, as well as serious health concerns such as inflammation and reduced immunity (which can increase your risk of chronic disease). And it goes without saying that poor sleep is terrible from a beauty perspective.

Call it vanity, call it health, but I know there’s a huge correlation between how I feel and what I look like when I roll out of bed in the morning.

Although there are beauty tricks that can make a difference, there’s no comparable substitute for good sleep in terms of how it can make you feel.
Here’s how to make sure you get the rest you deserve.

WHY NINE IS THE MAGIC NUMBER

By Dr Laura Lefkowitz, leading nutritional scientist and hormone adviser
The simplest and most direct route to ageing gracefully, maintaining a slender waistline and enjoying glowing skin and lush hair is getting as much as nine hours of good sleep every single night.

That’s because the body repairs itself and detoxifies overnight, and it’s this process — happening efficiently — that allows you to look your best the next day. But as menopause approaches, changes in hormones can lead to troubled sleep.

One of the earliest signs of peri-menopause is the sit-up-in-bed alertness that can suddenly strike in the early hours, leaving you restless and agitated. It might be night sweats, or thoughts rushing through your mind, but the undulating hormonal cocktail of midlife commonly leaves women sleep-deprived and stumbling through the day like a zombie.

Ironically, one of the most important reasons sleep is so crucial to youthfulness is the fact that it plays a central role in maintaining healthy levels of those errant hormones. When your sleep is poor in quality and quantity, your hormone output is inevitably affected.
And one of the most obvious — and aging — consequences is the increase in matronly middle-age spread.

This is because lack of sleep disrupts our metabolism and hormonal balance. Tiredness is a stressor and stress stimulates the hormone cortisol and insulin, which triggers your body to store fat. Stress also reduces glucagon, the hormone that instructs your body to burn fat.

Sleep deprivation also increases the production of thyroxine, because your body needs this hormone to help it push through a sleep-deprived day.

But high levels of thyroxine — the hormone vital for good digestion, heart and muscle function and brain development — can, over time, lead to poor thyroid function, which, in turn, leads to weight gain and fatigue.

And if that isn’t enough, burning the candle at both ends can cause a drop in the levels of appetite suppressant leptin, leaving you feeling peckish and more likely to overeat.

Tiredness also causes levels of the appetite-stimulating hormone ghrelin to rise, boosting hunger and appetite, particularly for carbohydrates.

CLEVER WAYS TO SLEEP CLEAN

Yoga nidra, which means ‘psychic sleep’, is a form of meditation that is believed to give you the benefits of sleep while you’re awake.
Although you’ll find many guided sessions online (see yoga nidranetwork.org) where a calm voice talks you through the meditation process, you can try this by yourself.

Lie down, close your eyes and simply try to focus (in relatively quick succession) on individual parts of the body, as you cast your attention in a circular motion from one hand — each finger, one by one — to your palm, wrist, forearm, elbow, upper arm, shoulder, neck, face, etc, and down the other arm across to the torso, down one leg and up the other.
With practice, you can even include internal organs in the circuit. Meditating like this takes your body and brain to a point that is very close to sleep, with all its restorative benefits, and the effect can be deeply relaxing.

BAN BEDTIME SNACKS

By detox expert Dr Alejandro Junger

Resist midnight snacks to prevent the digestive process from disturbing your sleep. In order to allow the body really to cleanse overnight, keep a regular 12-hour fasting window — so if you finish supper at 8.30pm, you shouldn’t eat breakfast until after 8.30am the next day.

This is because your body won’t slip into deep detox mode until about eight hours after your last meal and then it needs about four more hours of undisturbed sleep to do its job properly.

If you can’t avoid eating late at night, opt for something without sugar. Sugar is part of the reason a quick glass of wine, which might seem like a way to unwind, isn’t the best solution — as your body processes the alcohol, your sleep will be disrupted.

TRY A TRIGGER POINT HEAD RUB

By osteopath and pain expert Vicky Vlachonis

Massage special trigger points on the back of your head just before bed. There are specific points on the skull that are known to have therapeutic effects.

Once activated, they can stimulate circulation, disperse accumulated toxins and speed the flow of oxygenated blood throughout the body. This should help you think more clearly.

It also relieves tension headaches and sinus issues and helps lessen fatigue and insomnia.

Place your hands on the back of your head and count four to five fingers from the back of your ear, aiming for your hairline at the base of the skull. Use your left hand for the left side (and vice versa).

Apply gentle pressure with each thumb. When you’ve located the correct spot, you will feel a dip and a tender point.

To release each point of tension, apply gentle pressure with your thumb, holding it flat, and moving it slowly in a circular motion for ten seconds. Bliss.

PUT YOUR BEST FOOT FORWARD

Keep a pot of sweet-smelling, thickly-textured moisturizing cream by your bed and, before you turn off the light, give your feet a good three-minute massage (or better still, ask a loved one to do it for you).

You don’t need qualifications in reflexology to create a deeply ‘grounding’ sensation, which helps relieve some of the mental tension from the day and prepare you for truly restful sleep.

INVEST IN A COPPER PILLOW

Whether you are snoozing soundly or tossing and turning, you might be able to glean maximum health benefits from the time you do spend in bed by investing in a special metal-infused pillowcase.

Studies have shown that pillowcases infused with fine strands of copper oxide could help to prevent the formation of, and even reduce, wrinkles.

Copper plays a role in helping to boost elastin and collagen in the skin and is believed to have antimicrobial properties that fight bacteria and could help tame the spots and acne that can re-appear in middle age.

When your face is in contact with the pillowcase, copper ions are supposedly transferred into the upper layers of your skin, where they help support cell renewal. The Iluminage Skin Rejuvenating Pillowcase (£50, selfridges.com) is made from Cupron, a polyester-like material made using threads embedded with copper oxide fibres.

Alternatively, the Skin Laundry SleepCycle pillowcase (£24, libertylondon.com) follows similar principles, but uses silver ion technology to help reduce the presence of harmful bacteria.

It is cotton, but threaded with silver ions.