7 Tricks For A Better Beauty Rest As A New Mom

Sleep is a precious thing when you’re a new mom — it often involves making a choice about whether you’d rather do the dishes, fold laundry, browse Pinterest, work on your blog or catch a few extra zzzz’s. Usually I opt to get more done in a day over getting more sleep but if I know I have a shoot, important meeting or event I opt for more rest. Not only is it good for your health, but I always feel and look better after I’ve had a good night sleep (we are talking 7+ hours). Since I don’t have a ton of extra time for ‘beautifying’ I look to make the most out of my sleep. 

So how do I manage beauty rest? Here are a few tips….

1. Sleep when baby sleeps. They say this to you a lot when you have a newborn and I totally never listened, I only took a handful of naps the past 9 months, it’s just not in my nature to sleep when I know there are things to be done. But when it comes bed time… before Piper got into her routine of going to bed at 7pm I’d go to bed right after I put Piper down (around 10). It’s not ideal as it doesn’t leave you any time for yourself, but it does allow you to get the most sleep.
2. Slather up on those night creams. Invest in a good night cream and make sure you’re really hydrating your skin all those hours that you’re sleeping.
3. Wear an eye mask! Block out the light and wear an eye mask that performs double duty by fighting wrinkles — yes you read that right! The iluminage Skin Rejuvenating Eye Mask is infused with with copper fibers that have been clinically proven to reduce the appearance of wrinkles and fine lines within 4 weeks. So get a better rest with this satin soft eye mask and let the copper technology work while you sleep to fight off those wrinkles!
4. Skip the eye cream. Speaking of eyes… skip skip eye cream  at night especially before an event or important day as it can migrate into the delicate skin around your eyes as you sleep and leave you with puffy eyes when you wake.
5. Give yourself an ‘unwind time’ I’ve found I sleep so much better when I’ve had time to fully disconnect from my day — so I’ve been aiming to get into bed at least 30 minutes before I want to be asleep so I can do whatever I want — sometimes it means being on an electronic device (tsk tsk!) browsing Pinterset or catching up on my favorite blogs, and most of the time it means I’m reading a book. Since I try to avoid Instagram scrolling during the day — sometimes I do this just before bed although I’m trying to nix that habit since it can sometimes leave me anxious.
6. Use a humidifier. It will restore moisture to your skin all night long.
7. Pay attention to your pillowcase. Several years back I read about the benefits of using a satin or silky pillowcase (hydrates your skin, gentle on your hair) and recently started using iluminage’s Skin Rejuvenating Pillowcase. Not only is sleeping on it a dream, but it’s infused with copper fibers like the eye mask.  When the skin is in contact with the copper fibers, copper ions can be activated by moisture found in the skin’s upper layers. These released copper ions support the skin’s natural self-renewal process and help to reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles! Also be sure to wash your pillowcase weekly!

*This post is sponsored by iluminage. Thank you for supporting the brands that keep this site running! 

Images by Anna Reynal