Bring on the body beautiful for 2020 with the simplest makeover trick ever

According to the Sleep Council, a great night's sleep is the single most natural solution to looking good and feeling great. And it's calling on sub-standard sleepers everywhere to make 2020 the year to ‘sleep fit'.

Whether the problem is too little sleep or poor-quality sleep, working on sleep skills will reap more benefits than any pricey potions or so-called superfoods.

Said Lisa Artis of the Sleep Council: "The benefits of healthy eating and exercise are well known - but far less talked about is having a healthy sleep routine. And sleeping well is just as important to how we all look and feel as your five-a-day or gym routine.

"They don't call it beauty sleep for nothing! You can spend a fortune on skin creams and watch your diet, but you need your sleep for glowing skin. When you're fast asleep, the body goes into repair mode and regenerates skin, blood and brain cells, as well as muscles. As we well know, dark circles around the eyes can be one of the first signs of disturbed sleeping patterns."

Infact, lack of sleep can make you positively ugly according to research published in 2017. For a study at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, volunteers were rated less beautiful after just a few hours less sleep. Photographs of men and women (aged 18 - 47) after two nights of eight hours sleep and two nights of just four were rated by a group of more than 100 people. They were perceived to be less healthy looking, less sociable and less intelligent after halving their sleep.

"Short of going under the knife, a good night's sleep is the single most effective solution to looking good," said Lisa.

Here's how to upskill on sleep and enjoy nature's greatest makeover for 2020 with the very latest sleep tips from Sleep Council research partner and top UK sleep expert, Professor Jason Ellis. His 10 Commandments of Good Sleep are based on a review of the latest evidence, offering the ultimate advice for achieving a good night's sleep.

1 - Keep a regular sleep routine

Keeping a regular sleep wake schedule helps the body's sleep system stay in harmony and promotes feelings of sleepiness and drowsiness when your body is ready for sleep.

2 - Get out into natural light

Natural light (even on cloudy days), helps reset our internal body clock. It helps us get over feeling groggy when we have just woken up and makes us more alert. Get out into the natural light as soon as you can after waking up, and preferably around the same time every day.

3 - Exercise regularly

Exercise promotes the quantity and quality of your sleep, making it deeper and more refreshing. However, a few studies have shown that exercising too close to bedtime can prevent sleep, so we suggest leaving a window of at least two hours before bedtime without exercise.

4 - Avoid stimulants eight hours before bedtime

Although there are significant individual differences in how caffeine affects each of us, give yourself enough time between your last caffeine intake and your sleep time to make sure that it does not interfere with your ability to get off to sleep.

5 - Don't go to bed full, hungry or thirsty

Eating at regular times helps strengthen our internal body clock. However, eating a heavy meal before bedtime can make it challenging to sleep at night. Drinking lots of liquid before bed will also increase the chances that we have to go to the bathroom during the night. Conversely, being hungry or thirsty at night can increase the chances of waking up. A balance should be struck between being sated but not full up before we go to bed.

6 - Be screen savvy

Using electronic screens just before bed and in the bedroom can keep us awake for longer as the blue light from these devices has the capacity to prevent the hormones that make us sleepy from being produced. Importantly, it is not just the light that can affect our sleep, but most activities that we use our devices for can keep us awake and alert.

7 - Don't use alcohol to sleep

Although alcohol is a sedative, it can have a significant impact on the quality and quantity of your sleep. Our sleep tends to become fragile and light when we have a lot of alcohol in the evening and can lead to lots of awakenings in the latter part of the night and feelings of being unrefreshed during the day.

8 - Avoid nicotine before bed

Nicotine is a short-acting stimulant that can keep you awake and so should be avoided in the later part of the evening and during the night if you happen to wake up.

9 - Keep your bedroom cool, dark and quiet

Heat, light and noise can impact on our ability to get off to sleep and increase the chances that we wake in the night. Making sure the bedroom is cool, dark and quiet can improve the quality of our sleep as can sleeping on a comfortable, supportive bed.

10 - Ensure that bedroom clocks are not visible

It is common to watch the clock when we are awake at night. For some of us, this can increase our anxiety levels and further prevent us from being able to fall asleep. It is not necessary to remove the clock, as, for example, some people rely upon their alarm clocks to get them up in the morning, but having the clock face out of sight will help reduce any sleep anxiety.