← Biohacking Beauty: The Anti-Aging Skincare Podcast
Biohacking Beauty: The Anti-Aging Skincare Podcast
Sleep Is Skincare: How Timing Unlocks Your Body's Best Skin Repair
00:47:13
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- [00:07]
A
The most powerful anti aging protocol is eight hours long. And most people are doing it wrong
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B
because they treat sleep like an off time. But for skin, sleep is scheduled repair.
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A
Today we're going to make this practical, not vague. A protocol you can actually follow.
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B
And it starts with one word, consistency.
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A
Welcome back to Biohacking Beauty. I'm Amitay.
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B
And I'm Anastasia.
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A
Co founders of Yongoo Skincare, hosts of this biohacking beauty podcast. Today's episode is called Sleep is Skincare because if you're doing everything right topically but your sleep timing is chaos, your skin will show it.
- [00:51]
B
People think it's about the number of hours hours do matter, but timing sets the repair sequence your skin depends on.
- [01:00]
A
And we're not here to guilt you, we're here to give you control. Let me tell you something as parents to a two year old, this is an episode that's very close to heart. Let's just say it like that, where we feel guilty. Yeah, exactly. It's like what do you do with what life gives you? Not necessarily like, you know, you know how to, how to guilt trip yourself to better skin.
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B
Yeah.
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A
Well, here's the promise. Your skin barrier can be repaired and
- [01:31]
B
rebuilt and your best leverage point is not another product. It's stable sleep timing that protects your repair windows.
- [01:40]
A
Consistency is the active. We're going to stay. We're going to say that a lot actually. Okay, quick check. If your bedtime moves around and you're basically forcing your skin to run a factory on a random schedule.
- [01:54]
B
I mean, no factory hits peak output with a different shift start every night.
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A
Here's what most people get. Skin has repair windows. If you keep moving your bedtime, you keep missing them, you keep kind of confusing your skin.
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B
Yeah, and the big three windows we care about tonight are melatonin onset, the growth hormone pulse and overnight barrier recovery.
- [02:23]
A
The reason is you don't need a perfect life as we stated before. What you need is a repeatable window.
- [02:31]
B
Let's put the science into normal language. One, your skin has circadian gene expression. Circadian. I'm struggling with the word, but I hope I understand.
- [02:43]
A
If you had better sleep though, you.
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B
I know. Circadian. Your skin has circadian gene expression timing turns programs on and off, including repair programs. So your biological onset of repair.
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A
In other words, your skin has a schedule.
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B
Two, transepidermal water loss, which is water loss through the skin and it follows a rhythm as well. When timing is unstable, barrier recovery gets messy and you wake up drier, more reactive and more textured in Other words,
- [03:18]
A
you didn't randomly wake up dull.
- [03:22]
B
Exactly. And three, collagen synthesis timing is coordinated by circadian rhythm. It's not that collagen only happens at night, like only gets produced at night. It's that your clock helps coordinate when the machinery runs.
- [03:37]
A
Best factory schedule, same start time, better output. Let's make it obvious. Three common tells, okay?
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B
One, dull tone even with a good routine.
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A
Two, slow healing or slower healing after treatments or actives.
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B
Three, the eye area looking more crepe, crepey and dehydrated.
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A
If you relate to any of that or to all of them, you do not need to necessarily panic. But what you need is to stabilize timing. There's not a procedure, a product or an active that can outwork poor sleep quality.
- [04:20]
B
Trust me, we know. Yeah, consistency unlocks repair windows. And that's really what we're after. And yeah, I see a lot of people say these days, like, I protect my skin, my sleep, like I protect my calendar and things like that. And again, sometimes life happens. And for some of us, and I know just it's so many parents these days, I mean, if you're in the same, like, phase of life, age window of your kids, you know, from birth to, I don't know, I hear now,
- [04:56]
A
we didn't discover yet.
- [04:57]
B
Yes, you can't reach the proper number of hours or you can't reach the depth of sleep sometimes. But let's at least try our best to get the windows of sleep done right. And that's, you know, that's what we figured out for ourselves in the last two years of no sleep, no good sleep. And that's what we're sharing again. So consistent consistency unlocks repair windows, like we already mentioned. And these are the key ones. So the melatonin window, the growth hormone release window or pulse, and the barrier recovery. So let's focus on those and break them down.
- [05:36]
A
And you're correct to say, you know, again, we, we, we have a skincare company. We pride ourselves on being basically the, the topical arm of longevity science. And in the last two years, or a little bit more than that, we basically were looking for this ingredient. We were looking for an ingredient that will allow us to or our skin to perform its best. Although life handed us a child, an amazing child that doesn't believe in sleep.
- [06:10]
B
Yeah. And truthfully, we were looking for this ingredient. Yes, for our skin health. And this is what we're going to be talking about here. But in some other podcasts we talked about, let's say, just an example, creatine being something that can maybe offset sleep depth. So of course, you know, sleep has affected our lives in many, many different phases. But Yes, I mean it's crazy. The impact of sleep on skin health.
- [06:40]
A
Yeah. Well what I was getting to is that we discovered the ingredient is. Is not. Is not necessarily the hours.
- [06:47]
B
Exactly. Yeah.
- [06:48]
A
It's the consistency.
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B
Yeah.
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A
So here's the, what we consider is the protocol, you know, simple rules to follow and not necessarily a calendar.
- [06:56]
B
Okay. Yes. So rule number one, keep bedtime within a 60 minute window. So every time you go to sleep should be within the 60 minute window. So for some people it's, I mean we'll go get into the hours. But let's say. Yeah, maybe you'll get into the hours.
- [07:11]
A
You know, for most people a clean example is like you know, 11pm to midnight.
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B
Yes. Rule two, protect melatonin onset. So for the melatonin to come it needs a certain environment. So low light, less stimulation from screens. You're telling your body night shifts starts now.
- [07:32]
A
And I think, you know, we can borrow the examples we were talking about when we were talking about oxytocin release in during labor. Right?
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B
Yes.
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A
Do you want to tell us about that?
- [07:43]
B
Well, yes, of course. When it comes to give natural unmedicated birth in order for oxytocin to come and stimulate the onset of all the hormones that later will basically result in your body producing the amount of endorphins that you won't feel the contractions or will feel them, you know, will basically cover the pain, dull the pain. In order for oxytocin to come in and do all that important work, it. It's basically needs to be like you're in a cave. You need to think about like. And then one other example that was given was which is less relatable to sleep. But it really painted the picture to me when I was getting ready to give birth. It's like it has to be the environment where you can poop. So like you know, kind of.
- [08:39]
A
No, I think it still applies. You know the.
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B
Yeah, you have to feel very safe. You have to feel very comfortable, very at ease. And yes, I mean believe it or not, like, I mean it's easy to believe it still comes all from evolution, you know, the, you know, us. And if you look now at, in the animal kingdom, the animals are giving birth kind of like in a cave. So it has to be low to non light and you have to feel very safe. Like if you feel like there is any kind of danger or in, you know, bringing it back to the current situation. Like you're in the medical setting, in your room, in the room, and like three strangers look at you. You know, it's really hard to get to that level of oxytocin.
- [09:27]
A
But even bringing it back to sleep, you know, a lot has been talked about, basically the, the current environment that humans live in where, you know, a tiger is not going to chase us for dinner. I mean, not for our dinner, not for their dinner. And we are, we are. Our brain is still wired to perceive danger if there is a baseline for, you know, percept danger. So normal things like the essay that you need to conduct tomorrow or the conversation with your boss, or maybe you don't like someone at work or whatever that is that you're thinking about for tomorrow, the amount of emotional and stressful impact it has on you is equivalent to the most severe scenario when you were living in a cave. Right. So I think what I'm trying to say is that it's. Safety is a perception. And one of the most important things for the healthiest, optimal, optimized sleep is the, is a cultivation of the feeling of safety. And, you know, we definitely spoke about how to integrate mindfulness, mindfulness practices, relaxation practices, things like that. In other podcasts, we will attach a kind of a workbook or however, you know, we didn't settle on the name. I call it a companion. No one in the company likes that word. But we're going to attach a downloadable companion to this podcast which would go through some of those. But at the end of the day, cultivate the feeling of safety, of serenity, etc. So let's.
- [11:00]
B
So that was rule number one.
- [11:01]
A
That was rule number two. Rule number three, growth hormone loves earlier stable sleep. The point is not necessarily perfection. The point is repeatability.
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B
Yes. Okay, next rule. Overnight barrier recovery. I think it is number two and three. I think we got confused. But okay, the next one. The next rule, overnight barrier recovery needs low inflammation, stable timing, and a supportive night routine.
- [11:32]
A
No, by the way, it was rule. I'm going to tell you. Rule one is, is keep bedtime within 60 minutes. Okay. Rule two, protect melatonin onset, which is low light. Everything we talked about. Rule three is growth hormone.
- [11:46]
B
Yeah.
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A
So it means earlier and repeatability. And then rule four. Repeat that, please, because I was in my head, you know, already thinking about the three rules.
- [11:57]
B
So the rule four, in order to support the barrier recovery, we need to make sure that as we go to sleep, there is stable timing, ideally low inflammation. And inflammation, you know, it can be triggered by many things. Right. It could be stress. So again, we're going back to the fact that we want to have a relaxing routine. We want to, you know, like minimal screens, minimal stress. Let's not read the news. No scrolling. Within 60 minutes of going to sleep. Like no inflammatory foods. Right. And that will support the nighttime routine.
- [12:32]
A
Less sugars.
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B
Yes. Like, yeah. Then the sugar, alcohol, fried foods, you know, the list goes on. Like no inflammatory foods.
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A
Yeah. For a lot of people. Milk, milk products, dairy products.
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B
Yeah. So again, and we can link podcasts. We have many podcasts with nutritionists that break down what's what foods are inflammatory. So no inflammatory foods for rule number four. Okay.
- [12:59]
A
Okay. Rule number five. Nighttime can also be used to stimulate renewal, but only if you can. Basically only if. And we're going to touch on it more. Only if you earn it with recovery. It means it needs to be. If you're, if your routine feels like a stack, you know, it's. It's not a routine. It's. It's a, it's a, it's a coin flip. First and foremost, you need a good recovery. Recovery ability. You need your NAD levels up. You need good mitochondrial function, you need good cell to cell signaling, the ability to handle and resolve inflammation. All of those come before stimulation, which we've talked about many times around lasers, microneedling, different, even retinoids. Like different types of stimulations. First dial in recovery.
- [13:50]
B
Okay, you said it very well. Skin hates coin flips.
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A
Yeah.
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B
And since you started talking about stimulation versus recovery, I'll. And you cover the recovery. I'll go over stimulation. So stimulation means you send a meaningful signal that increases demand like retinol or some, maybe other chemical exfoliants. You know, it could be ha. BHA at home microneedling or photo biological photobio stimulation session. Like red light therapy.
- [14:22]
A
You know, recovery. The way I see it is recovery means you build capacity so you can keep compounding results.
- [14:30]
B
Yeah, I love that. Yeah, no, that makes sense to me, I think to everyone. So the rule is one major stimulus per 24 hours.
- [14:38]
A
I think with one exception, which is PBMS for the photobiomodulation, aka red light therapy. Because I think red light therapy is flexible. It could be combined with other stimuli. And as long as you don't stack everything else together and you don't make your skin too photosensitive, I think, I think it could be stacked together.
- [14:58]
B
I agree, I agree.
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A
Yeah.
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B
So you want to talk about recovery night backbone.
- [15:04]
A
Yeah. So I would start, you know, recovering night backbone A lot of times we say you need to cleanse. You don't need to cleanse at night. Cleanse. Okay, that's number one, then. Yeah, I would say exosomes. I think we get a lot of questions around exosomes. When should we put them? Blah, blah, blah. Should we use it once or twice a day? Right. That's a question we get a lot. Here's a rule. Exosomes facilitate the body's own actions of recovery. They actually kind of make the signals your cells produce. They amplify them and they optimize them, but they do not send them directly. They don't. They rely on your body kind of trying to communicate. Your cells try to communicate. So your cells are trying to communicate recovery significantly more overnight. Therefore, most of the results of applying exosomes would be with night application. Yeah. So within the backbone first, these are like, must. Must have steps, if you will. Right. Cleanse. Then when your skin is dry, apply vampire exosomes. Then, you know, you.
- [16:15]
B
You wait for it to absorb. I say on the safe side, wait 10 minutes. Yeah, I'm learning also on me, on myself. And I often say that, you know, when new information comes to light or I, you know, I may change my protocol on my mind. So in the beginning, I was. I just waited until I really feel that it's dry. And so sometimes I would be like even five minutes and I would move on with my routine. And recently I just changed things up. Like I'll apply the vampire exosome and then go about some other errands to do with bedtime. And I wait like 10 minutes and I, I actually see better results. So now I recommend to everyone, don't cut corners, wait 10 minutes.
- [16:56]
A
Okay, but we're saying the minimum is. I agree with you. That's what I do. But just to make it, you know, to give people a choice. It's. The minimum is two minutes. Yes, but. But I agree with you.
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B
People have. Can have this choice. I just want people to get the best results and the less risk of not getting the best results.
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A
Remember we had an employee that said, I love it for us. Yeah, I love it for us.
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B
Yes.
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A
I would just. Honorable mention. Bio barrier is an option here. Or, you know, taking it out of our, you know, niche of products like a bi barrier supporting product. Could be a, could be a, an option here. And then obviously, youth daily as your moisturizer anchor. Right?
- [17:38]
B
Yeah. So Happy birth mask can be your final step at night or other occlusive. If you have a facial oil that you like, you can Use that instead of the mask. And then, you know, I personally think that everyone can use it nightly and you'll get like the most intensive results. If you wish, you can then later go for maintenance and then you can use it as needed. I'm talking about the occlusive. But really if you, if you wake up with your skin slightly tight or dry, try adding an occlusive step over your moisturizer and then gauge, you know, do you want to do it nightly? Do you want to do it a couple times there a week at night?
- [18:18]
A
Yes. It is true that exosomes, the better they work, the more your skin might have tendency to feel drier.
- [18:29]
B
Yeah. Because of the stimulated renewal actually and repair.
- [18:33]
A
So that's why we, you know, we, we kind of mentioned bio barrier here. We, we kind of make sure that, we mention that you need a moisturizer, another layer of occlusive like hyperbaric mask. This is not, does not mean it's not, it doesn't fit. Your skin is not a fit for it. Maybe the opposite is actually true. But it does mean that for your feeling of hydration, etc. You should use a more occlusive product or two afterwards.
- [19:04]
B
Yeah. And I mean if you are working in bio barrier as Amitaya suggested, so you're doing exosomes, then you're doing bio barrier, then you're doing the moisturizer. Most likely this will be a great combo and you might not even need hyperbaric mask on top because the bioberry already acts as an oil and in this case it fits better to apply that before the moisturizer. Just don't be confused.
- [19:26]
A
But I do want to mention something, although you said that my opinion is, I'm sure you would agree with me that the hyper, like adding the hyperbaric mask as far as, like, yeah.
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B
Is more impactful than the bio barrier
- [19:38]
A
is more impactful and more unique. Meaning if you have a, you know, if you want, if you are on a budget and you want to kind of, you know, kind of tailor like, tailor like follow the routine that we're placing here. But you're trying to find alternatives, you can find something with ceramides or cholesterol, some kind of lipids that would, you know, enhance barrier or support barrier function. But you wouldn't be able to find something like hyperbaric mask. And it's also more impactful. So that's what I'm saying. You could, you know, find another barrier supporting product but make sure that you use the hyperbaric mask as far as like that together with retinol nights. Right. I would say, you know, we talk a lot about stimulation nights and recovery nights and especially we talked a lot about recovery use retinol when you start, you know, any vitamin A start at two nights per week. Yes, that I think would be, would be best. And then what should they do?
- [20:37]
B
And then you increase by one night per week every month like additionally based on the tolerance. And then most people will. There are different retinol formulations. With our retinol, it's called bioretinol because it's. The retinol is 0.5% which is kind of sweet spot where you don't get that sensitive. And then we also submerged it in biomimetic lipids, the same lipids we use in bio barrier. So you don't really have to use both of them. You can use just the bioretinol if that will be the choice for the key ingredient. And so since the retinol is submerged in lipids again, there is even less chance of retinization, which is that process where you get used to the retinol and your skin is peeling temporarily. So most people can use bioretinol even nightly.
- [21:27]
A
Yeah. I would say again, giving people a little bit of an alternative. You could, if you have a retinol that you like and you're trying to, you're trying to do like half doses, like you have a night, you use it, you know, two times per week. First of all, just to reiterate what you were saying about adding another night per week every month. So you use it, you know, two nights a week for the first month you're dealing with it. Well, the second month you're going to do it three times per week for an entire month, etc. Etc. Etc.
- [21:53]
B
Yeah. But if you low and slow.
- [21:55]
A
Yeah. If you want to try like half doses, you could add. Let's say you do two, two nights a week and you're unsure three nights a week is good for you. The next time you do it, you do it after the moisturizer.
- [22:08]
B
Yes, yes. You like. It's like a sandwich technique. You apply the moisturizer, then you apply the retinol and then you apply the moisturizer again.
- [22:14]
A
Yeah.
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B
So you kind of have like that better, better buffer.
- [22:17]
A
So that's kind of a half dose. You could, you could, you don't have to go like another full night basically, even though you're adding a night.
- [22:23]
B
Yes. But if you feel that you have a lot of flaky skin, itchy skin and persistent redness. What do you do then?
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A
What do you do?
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B
You back off.
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A
Oh yeah. You back off. Yeah.
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B
Yes.
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A
I've never heard of about backing off.
- [22:36]
B
Exactly. So if that shows up, do not push through ADD recovery nights. And then remember that you might have multiple products on your shelf that cause stimulation. Then let's say you have the retinol and then you have. You did the red light as I mentioned. Right. And then maybe you didn't realize, but in your facial scrub you also have like chemical enzymes. For example, it would be in the case of nail polish hour scrub. It's dual function. It has physical granules that help exfoliate the skin and it has enzymatic exfoliation. So I really do not recommend to combine them in the facial room. It's different when you go to a professional. They can and often do combine using retinol, nail polish, then even another like a chemical peel all on the same facial. But it has to be done skillfully. And that's your like monthly facial. You know, it's not something you should be doing, you know, too often. And I do not recommend to do it at home in general for yourself, unless you're an esthetician.
- [23:36]
A
Yeah. So again, like just to, you know, reiterate what happens if your skin is
- [23:42]
B
reactive or inflamed, you focus on repairing your skin barrier and you're focusing on hydration and, you know, ingredients that push recovery instead of further sensitizing your skin.
- [23:55]
A
Yeah. Fantastic. Okay. At home, micro needling also counts as a stimulation night.
- [24:00]
B
Yes. Or even rolling.
- [24:03]
A
Even rolling, yeah.
- [24:04]
B
Yeah.
- [24:04]
A
So what would you do post that microneedling night.
- [24:09]
B
Okay, so after microneedling, you run two to three straight recovery nights. No retinol, no nail polish, no stacking.
- [24:18]
A
Yeah. Cleanse vampire exosomes, optional bio barrier, youth daily. Keep it boring. Boring is how you win.
- [24:27]
B
Yeah.
- [24:28]
A
Let's talk about red light therapy or photobiomodulation. The reason I say photobiomodulation can interchangeably with red light therapy because a couple reasons. First of all, you are, you know, we are recommending to use both settings, like red light and near infrared that most panels have. And I feel like it's a more accurate term that would allow companies that are not that don't have the best intention at heart to manipulate the term a little bit less. So that's why PBM photobiomodulation, we try to weave it into conversation a little bit more. But it's basically, you could think of it as red light therapy. So here's the. The exact sequence. Do you want to. Do you want to say the exact sequence?
- [25:15]
B
Yeah, sure. So you cleanse your skin, then you apply lather. Then you wait for it to absorb, make sure that it's fully absorbed. Usually like about three to five minutes. Then you go, you sit in front of red light therapy. And then for the follow up, you apply vampire exosomes use daily. And if it's at night, you apply happy birth mask. If it's during the day, you apply bioshield.
- [25:37]
A
Yeah. And yes, retinol can be applied after red light. Red light is the exception where it's also stimulatory, but it can also be combined with other stimulations.
- [25:50]
B
Love that. Yes, love that for us.
- [25:52]
A
I love that for us. But remember, red light therapy exception does not mean stack everything. Consistency is a major factor here. As we say, consistency is the active, right? Same as sleep. If your skin looks dull, the move is not always another active, right?
- [26:10]
B
Yes. So dullness can actually be a red flag of timing problem. So if your sleep window is moving, you're disrupting the repair sequence. And we're getting back into, you know, talking about windows.
- [26:24]
A
Your fix is boring, right? And it works. Pick a bedtime window and protect it.
- [26:31]
B
Yes. Let's take a second to talk about why your skin looks less firm than it used to, even though you're doing everything right. And the collagen may not be the problem. Elastin is what allows skin to stretch, move, and return without leaving lines or laxity behind.
- [26:51]
A
And once elastin signaling breaks down, you cannot hydrate or peptide your way out of it.
- [26:58]
B
The issue is that elastin degradation is silent. By the time skin starts to look lax or less responsive, the damage has already compounded under the surface.
- [27:08]
A
Most routines never acknowledge elastin at all. So we built one that does.
- [27:13]
B
The elastin action protocol is the system we use to protect elastin function before visible laxity sets in. It focuses on reducing oxidative stress, supporting fibroblast signaling, and targeting the areas where. Where elastin breaks down shows first, including the jawline, neck, and under the eye area.
- [27:32]
A
Inside the protocol, you will find structured morning and evening routines, red light timing for elastin preservation, and recovery guidance for post treatment periods when elastin is most vulnerable.
- [27:48]
B
This is not a firming product. It is a structural intervention. If you want the full elastin protocol, you can download it. We will send it straight to your email. The link is in the episode description.
- [28:01]
A
If your routine only focuses on collagen it is missing the real issue.
- [28:11]
B
Okay, so you want to do a quick recap?
- [28:14]
A
Yes, let's do a quick recap. Your skin has repair windows, which is melatonin onset, which, which is dictated by your exposure to blue light before you sleep. Calmness, nervous system relaxation, et cetera, growth hormone pulse. It's basically like how consistent your sleep is. And your body knows that you produce most of your growth hormone in your first, maybe second sleep windows, which are about 90 minutes. So this is important to time it correctly. We need to have consistency there and you know, consistent overnight barrier recovery that deals with like how inflamed you arrive basically to your to bed. Right. So we need to lower inflammation and that would allow our barrier to recover more obviously. Support it with, with nutrients and with, and with topicals that support barrier repair. That's basically it, right?
- [29:14]
B
Yeah.
- [29:15]
A
Great.
- [29:15]
B
And I will add that since we're on a topic of sleeping, couple of more things that I do before I go to sleep to optimize my skin in the morning would be one. I tend to give myself like a gentle facial massage. That is also something that helps you kind of like relax. Thinking about, you know, setting the stage for relaxing, you know, night. And then I apply the Japanese facial tape, which if you're interested in the facial fascia work or tapes, we can link the past episodes where we brought experts to talk about it and the benefits of those modalities combined and especially the tapes to really help your skin get more out of your sleep. And one other topic, like, while we're in the topic of sleep is the way you lay your face at night. And it's, you know, spoiler alert. I'm far from being perfect. I'm still working through sleeping properly. But Amitay, do you know what is the best position to sleep for your face?
- [30:28]
A
Yes, it's on your back.
- [30:30]
B
Exactly.
- [30:31]
A
Now the worst is on your belly.
- [30:32]
B
Exactly. And I've been a belly sleeper all my life until like, I don't know, just a few years ago where I'm like, okay, I really have to not be belly sleeper. And I managed to now teach myself to sleep on my side, which is still not great. And if you have a preferred side, it's inevitable that you will see like more pronounced nasal labial folds over time, especially on one side. And I have that on my, let's say left side, for example. And yes, still working through it of teaching myself to sleep on my back. But it is very, very good if you can do that now because your,
- [31:12]
A
your head Is pretty heavy.
- [31:13]
B
Yeah. Believe it or not, it's like as heavy as the bowling ball. Bowling ball, which is crazy. So you actually, it gives you the perspective of how strong your neck is. And that's why, I don't know, sometimes the neck muscles can be so tense because this bowling ball, you know, the neck has to carry it, like hold it right in like tilted position when we're looking at our screens and computers during the day. So, you know.
- [31:37]
A
Yeah, but that's what you put on your pillow every day. And your skin is kind of smooshed between it and the pillow. Right?
- [31:43]
B
Exactly. So if you sleep on your side or face down, so then imagine so your skin is getting pressed by that bowling ball at night. So as you can picture it, that's pretty intense for your skin. And with that comes the question about the fabric of your pillowcase.
- [32:02]
A
Yeah.
- [32:03]
B
So even if you have like the best top of the line cotton pillowcase.
- [32:08]
A
Brazilian thread count.
- [32:10]
B
Yes. Brazilian thread count of the cotton. Egyptian cotton or whatever.
- [32:15]
A
Yeah.
- [32:16]
B
Unfortunately, microscopically speaking, this cotton is still too abrasive for your skin. So, you know, it might be very soft to the touch, but when you're thinking about your skin been pressed and then you also, in the, in the sleep, you don't just lay still, you actually move in your sleep. So you're like doing micro abrasions to your skin with the cotton pillowcase.
- [32:40]
A
So but it's not only, it's not only high friction, it's also high absorption. Right.
- [32:46]
B
That's another thing. The cotton pillowcase is stealing your skin care. Yeah. So you applied all of those layers.
- [32:53]
A
That's where the cotton you, you wake up and there's no wrinkles in the cotton.
- [32:57]
B
Yes, the cotton, the cotton is getting all the anti aging benefits. So with that, what is this the alternative that people should use?
- [33:05]
A
So I think there are two alternatives. Right. There are two major alternatives. One is, is a synthetic alternative, which is called satin. Satin. Yeah.
- [33:13]
B
Yeah.
- [33:14]
A
And the other one is silk.
- [33:15]
B
Right, exactly.
- [33:16]
A
So it is true that, you know, if you go on Amazon or something, first of all, there are often blends, you know, they're not, you know, 100% and they're all also interchangeable. A lot of the times the quality or the, the end result is being, is being purported, which is like, you know, whatever, you know, better for your skin or something like that. But they are not, they don't have the same properties. Right. So maybe go over the differences and which one is better for sure.
- [33:46]
B
So as most people listening to this podcast, I Know how informed you guys are, you already can guess and you guess correctly that silk will be better than satin. So now when you're looking for the top of the line silk pillowcase, it will be maybe on the pricier side and it has to do with the way they're producing it. But any silk pillowcase is a natural fabric and that, that gives it natural breathability and also it controls the temperature better so you are less prone to sweating. And it's actually. So the cotton is hydrophilic, so it will absorb all of the your creams but the silk is hydrophobic. So actually it will leave your skincare alone. It like it doesn't want your skincare kind of repels the skin care from it, which is good news. So you keep all the skincare. So that's in terms of silk. And then again thinking about the fact
- [34:45]
A
that that just thinking of the silk is like a French guy. I don't want any of you.
- [34:50]
B
Yes. So let's go back to the fact that okay, your, your head is very heavy as a bowling ball and then you press it, that bowling ball into a silk pillowcase. Whether on the side or face down, that's already much better. There's no that friction and it's better. Okay. It's still the best to sleep on your back. But if that's not what you can do, then silk pillowcase can offset a lot of the issues coming name for
- [35:18]
A
a silk pillowcase, Silo.
- [35:22]
B
Now satin is a. Is a better actually alternative friction wise than cotton. But with satin you have higher chance of sweating and that can lead to acne. That can lead to breakouts and clogged pores. So really, I mean make an investment into a silk pillowcase. Silk pillowcase. If you're not a back sleeper, if you're a back sleeper, you can even deal with the sleeping on your cotton pillowcase and be okay for everyone else. Silk pillowcase. And then just hand wash it because I've ruined a lot of my silk pillowcases by machine washing them. So just learn from me. And just the one can serve you very well if you take good care of it.
- [36:07]
A
Yeah, it's called mom. Like you need 18-22m.
- [36:13]
B
Yeah.
- [36:14]
A
I don't know what mom stands for,
- [36:16]
B
but it's the way they. I think it's the way they weave it.
- [36:20]
A
Uhhuh.
- [36:20]
B
Okay, but don't quote me on that.
- [36:22]
A
But that was. We did research before the episode. That's what research says. That's what that's.
- [36:27]
B
So when you. Yeah. When you're looking for your silk pillowcase. Silk can see that it's between 18 to 22 mom. And that should be a good quality silic pillowcase that will provide all of this benefits we talked about.
- [36:41]
A
Okay, awesome. What else do you want to add around sleep? Are we, are we done?
- [36:46]
B
Yeah, I think we mentioned that. I mean one other thing I guess we didn't touch on is like supplementation. You know something to from inside out to give a good chance for better sleep.
- [37:00]
A
So let's go over. I'm going to go over a few supplements that you shouldn't supplement you shouldn't take. Omega 3 at night is a positive lowers inflammation and is very good to support skin barrier function. If you are on the camp that doesn't like Omega 3 or you want to add to that you could use C15 fatty 15 or you can use the. Yeah.
- [37:22]
B
The balance oil by body bar that has a good ratio of Omega 3 and Omega 6s but that's provided that you already have anti inflammatory diet and you don't eat like seed oil.
- [37:35]
A
Yeah. High. High Omega 6.
- [37:37]
B
Yeah.
- [37:38]
A
Within the those parameters and mentioning body bio phosphatidylcholine or PC as it's called. It's called by body bio. Very good. One more supplement that I would recommend to to take at night is spermidine.
- [37:53]
B
Mm.
- [37:54]
A
And that's something I was talking about. No one even the spermidine people didn't understand what I'm talking about. Spermidine is amazing for obviously stimulates autophagy which is similar to fasting. You fast at night so you get this boosting of ability but it also contributes to sleep. Magnesium is extremely important.
- [38:13]
B
Glycine.
- [38:14]
A
Glycine, yeah. So you could take magnesium glycinate which which has both of those. However the magnesium that can cross the blood brain barrier in the best way is called magnesium trianate. So you can take your glycine separately also taurine. So a lot of people we take for example a powder that has both glycine and taurine together with N acetylcysteine. So nac. So these are the end for relaxation. So that would be supplements that are good for sleep. Here are supplements that you don't necessarily want to take around sleep which are B vitamins. B vitamins are stimulants to some extent are energy supporting vitamins. You should keep them for the morning. Another one is carnitine or L carnitine. Same thing we we supports brain function, brain function and brain alertness. Functional mushrooms sometimes for some people are going to do similar things. Lion's mane. So, you know, to me it doesn't affect my sleep, but for me it
- [39:21]
B
would like keep me up. We also take creatine at night.
- [39:24]
A
Creatine at night. That, that is not necessarily because that's the best way, the best timing to take creatine. What else? I think that's basically so NMN would NAD support. Would. Would not to be recommended as well. You should be taking it in the morning. NR, NMN and NAD3, all of those NAD supporters you don't want to take at night. A lot of peptides you indeed can take at night, but not peptides that support, you know, brain function, whether it's injectable orally.
- [39:57]
B
Yeah.
- [39:58]
A
Nose, nasal sprays, things like that.
- [40:00]
B
Yeah. Everything that keeps you sharp in the morning. My rule, I can't take it after like 2pm yeah. So if I missed the window, I got caught up in the morning and I didn't take it over lunch. That is it. Otherwise I'm just going to be wired.
- [40:13]
A
That's okay. I think one last thing is, you know, just consumption of food around that time.
- [40:19]
B
And liquids.
- [40:20]
A
And liquids. Okay. So you can start with liquids and we'll go from there.
- [40:24]
B
Well, I think so. With food, they say not to take it past three hours before bed and that really, really helps you sleep better. And then with liquid again, it's a little bit hard because sometimes for us, we put our toddler to bed and then we go take our night supplement and then we fall asleep within like an hour. And that's not great. But I've heard it on multiple podcasts that, I mean, if you can avoid drinking also three hours before bed, that's the best. But at least two hours so you don't end up going wake yourself up to go to the restroom.
- [41:00]
A
Yeah. All good points. Here are a few things. So I've heard it from a few experts already. I cannot trace it to research, but these were experts in the field. If you are consuming water closer to your bedtime, have them be higher salinity, have more salts than that makes sense than normally. And the other thing is so they can actually get into your cells, et cetera, and be expelled less quickly, basically. Also don't drink cold water for the same reason. So warmer water or I mean, I
- [41:33]
B
feel like in general in the evening, speaking of like relaxing bedtime routine, warmer liquids are better. Like, you know, if you can have teas or something. Like what?
- [41:44]
A
I don't know.
- [41:45]
B
Yeah, we drink tea. Yeah.
- [41:48]
A
To relax at night and as far as food for most people, and obviously it depends on what you ate, right. But you should definitely not eat past 90, so 90 minutes before your bedtime. You hear people like Brian Johnson saying, I'm not eating anything since noon. You know, there is also mental. You need to keep your mental.
- [42:14]
B
And not everyone has. Yeah, but I'm not saying, okay, first of all, you know, whatever works for whomever, but most people will not have his lifestyle, you know, so.
- [42:29]
A
Yeah, but yeah, exactly. You wanna, you wanna make sure you're doing something that is congruent with, you know, how you live your life, Etc. 90 minutes is a good rule. Obviously. Meat, things like that, things that digest less quickly, mushrooms, eggs, you probably wanna wait three hours, three, four hours before, you know, eat them, before you go to sleep. And that's, I think that basically is it. Oh, one more thing, which is temperature.
- [42:55]
B
Oh, temperature of the room.
- [42:57]
A
Yes, temperature of the room. We want to live in the way that our internal body temperature, we also have a circadian rhythm as far as like temperature. So our. In order to fall asleep. Do you want to? Do you want to?
- [43:11]
B
No, I rather you speak about it because in my head I have Molly's voice, sleep coach Molly telling me that she got, she brings the room temperature to 60, 60 degrees and I cannot even get close to that. So I rather you speak about temperature.
- [43:27]
A
She might be like half penguin anyway. No, so we want a cold, we want a colder room, colder climate to fall asleep and to get into deeper sleep. And in general, what happens to our body, our body lowers the temperature around when we go to sleep and to wake us up, our body raises the temperature. So if you look at advanced mattresses and things that regulate your heat, your body's heat, they lower the temperature in order to make you fall asleep or keep you asleep and raise the temperature in order to wake you up. So that's as far as that. When we talk about external factors like sauna or cold plunge, you actually might want to consider thinking about it the opposite. And what I mean by that is, so if we engage in a cold plunge or like cold, cold, deliberate cold exposure, our body responds by working extra hard to raise our body temperature as a counter to that. And what would happen is, is that your body is going to, you're going to have like a, like a overshooting of that activity. And even if you feel cooler when you fall asleep, your body is going to work to raise your body temperature. And your science shows, studies show that you're going to get poorer sleep. Your body Temperature is going to raise during, you know, during the night and vice versa. With saunas, whether it's infrared or conventional saunas, your. Your body's working hard or is responding by lowering or maintaining your body temperature less or lowering your core body temperature post sauna. So you're actually going to improve your sleep if you would do sauna closer to bedtime or in the evening. So your body's core temperature is actually lower after that. So that's as far as temperature.
- [45:19]
B
Cool point.
- [45:20]
A
Yeah. Red light therapy. A lot of people say, hey, I want to do it in the morning because abc, because of the, because of energy support, and at night because it's cueing our body to go into repair mode. Both work, both are good. It is not interacting with what are called cathacholamines, which is the chemicals that run in our brain basically that determine alertness, et cetera, or different things. So there's no problem doing it in the morning. In the evening, definitely we're talking about therapeutic red light therapy. We're not talking about just the light in the room. That would be always important to do at night. Okay. Anyway, that was a long podcast, longer than we expected. So any, Any words to.
- [46:08]
B
Any closing thoughts? No, no, I think, I think we covered really sleep is skin care. And with. With that there is a caveat of. That there is nuance of, of best preparing for your sleep. And I hope that this podcast, which we might break into two, I don't know, we'll see, give you like the, the best guidance and you don't have to take notes as you listen because we're going to have a companion. We're going to have a protocol, downloadable protocol that you can refer to, and hopefully it will be helpful for you to optimize your sleep.
- [46:45]
A
Amen. So sleep about it. Sleep on it.
- [46:48]
B
Okay, thank you so much, guys. See you next week.
- [46:51]
A
Bye, everyone.