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You Look Tired: The Modern Woman's Guide To Dealing With Those 3 Horrible Words

How To Stop Looking Tired Every Single Day
Woman in computer room sleeping
Monkey Business Images via Getty Images
Woman in computer room sleeping

Sleep has become a precious commodity in our fast-paced world; even when we are lucky enough to have enough of it, sometimes it still looks like we’re not. Puffiness, dry and red eyes, dark bags framing your face, and sallow looking skin are a few red flags for not looking as well-rested as you maybe are. It’s not that you feel especially terrible on the inside, but sometimes you look worse for wear on the outside, and people take notice. Here are some reasons why you still look exhausted and the ways to fix that.

<strong>Fluid</strong>

How To Stop Looking Tired Every Single Day

Fluid

Your body is really cool and a little weird, if you think about it. One of the things it does during the day is collect fluid, sometimes without it really going anywhere. So when we’re sleeping, especially with the position of being horizontal — either on our backs or sides — in bed, water gets distributed throughout the body. That process is interrupted if we’re not having a truly consistent, restful sleep. This results in that fluid collected in places like under the eyes, causing excess face baggage that no one asked for.

When water isn’t circulated evenly, it causes us to look worse for wear than we normally would. Trying to really give into sleep and remove excess factors (like stress, see below) will help with that process and soon you’ll look as good as you feel.

Stress

This one is pretty simple: when you’re tossing and turning during the night, even if for a little bit, your sleep and physical appearance is affected by that. Even if you’re thinking about something before you go to sleep, it will inform the sleep you have. Our brains have a nasty habit of kicking into overdrive and not turning off when we need them to most.

Want to look less worn-down? Try to slip into a zen mindset before sleep and you’ll feel much better, inside and out.

Too Much Sleep

This seems like a fake out, but it’s true: if you sleep too much, it’ll show. How can too much of a good thing make look so worn-out? You can blame those tired eyes on catching a couple extra zzz’s.

Food

What you eat matters in literally all the ways. We know that using our bodies as garbage cans will have detrimental effects in the long-term but did you know that it also appears on your face? The usual suspects that will make you look less shiny and awesome are: alcohol, fried foods, candy, red meat, and essentially everything you love but should have in moderation. Spicy foods, too, will affect the way you look.

If you still feel pretty great in spite of eating all of these things then call yourself lucky. Consider the puffiness of your face a warning sign from your body to cool it for a bit on the extremely delicious and dangerous craft beer, fried chicken, and onion rings you may love and adore: it may cause more serious harm in the long run.

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