Those of you who read me regularly know I have an uneasy relationship with sleep. Jennifer Lopez knows what I’m going through. She once turned her back on sleep to work more. But it took its toll on both her mental health and appearance. Not only did it lead to paralyzing anxiety attacks, J.Lo finds that the more sleep she gets, the more she sees it in her face. She calls sleep her “little time machine” and claims to wake up looking younger when she gets 7-9 hours of sleep per night.
Jennifer Lopez is getting real about an underrated beauty secret: sleep.
In an excerpt from the actress and singer’s newsletter, On the JLo, she opened up about how a panic attack led her to realize the importance of getting her enough shut-eye — as well as leading her to prioritize mindfulness and a work-life balance.
“We don’t value sleep,” she wrote. “We value grinding and working hard — and admittedly, nobody gets caught up in that rat race more than me. I’ve found however, that sleep to me is the most underrated beauty secret out there.”
“There was a time in my life where I used to sleep 3 to 5 hours a night,” she explained. “I’d be on set all day and in the studio all night and doing junkets and filming videos on the weekends. I was in my late 20s and I thought I was invincible.”
That all changed when she went from “feeling totally normal” in her trailer to feeling unable to move.“I was completely frozen,” she said. “I had made my work such an all-consuming priority and let my own self-care needs go completely (even as simple as sleeping or taking ten minutes to just relax). I found myself feeling physically paralyzed, I couldn’t see clearly and then the physical symptoms I was having started to scare me and the fear compounded itself.”
Lopez, 52, said she now knows it was “a classic panic attack brought on by exhaustion,” but admitted that at the time she didn’t have words to describe it.
“My security guard on set came in and picked me up and drove me to the doctor,” she wrote. “By the time I got there, I could at least speak again and I was so terrified I thought I was losing my mind. I asked the doctor if I was going crazy. He said, ‘No, you’re not crazy. You need sleep … get 7 to 9 hours of sleep per night, don’t drink caffeine, and make sure you get your workouts in if you’re going to do this much work.’ I realized how serious the consequences could be of ignoring what my body and mind needed to be healthy — and that’s where my journey to wellness began.”
“As I slept more and took care of myself, I realized it was about pro-living versus anti-aging,” Lopez said.
“I think of sleep like a little time machine,” she continued. “You lay down and you go into a space where you preserve yourself and then you come out a new, younger person than you were before. Sometimes I wake up and say, ‘Wow! I just lost 10 years off my face!’ That’s what a good night’s sleep can do for you, and it accumulates over time.”
It’s not that I don’t believe what J.Lo is saying, it’s just that I don’t need something else stressing me out when I’m trying to go to sleep. I know I look better after a good night’s sleep. The bags under my eyes get so dark, I constantly walk around looking post-op from a nose job. Fortunately, I live in LA so I blend in. I remember Julia Roberts once said to always wear mascara because it makes, “you look like you’ve had a good nap,” which is another way of saying that sleep is a great beauty tip. People like CB, who naps regularly, and J.Lo who gets her full night’s sleep, always look refreshed. And just like days and weeks of not sleeping show on a face, as J.Lo said above, sleep accumulates. Good sleep patterns benefit the whole you.
I love J.Lo’s comment about looking at it as pro-living vs. anti-aging, too. Because it does affect more than just your skin. I don’t have anxiety but the closest I get is at night. I have stress dreams that wake me up and prevent me from falling back asleep. Maybe that is a form of anxiety that I haven’t explored yet. I’m on a three-day stretch of insomnia from stress dreams right now. And it’s physically obvious, like J.Lo mentioned. Only, I’m not sure how to get those 7-9 hours she’s talking about. I guess I could cutout all caffeine, but I don’t really drink that much, and I don’t drink any after noon. I’ve been working out every day and my diet is the best it’s been in a over a year. So I guess I just need J.Lo’s millions and Ben Affleck to give me a green diamond to get a good night’s sleep?
Photo credit: Avalon Red and Instagram
I have never been a sound sleeper. Then came the kids…and I haven’t got back my sleep quality. I have read every book there is on improving sleep, sleep hygiene and went to see doctors, psychologists and hypnotherapist. I tried sleep deprivation, cognitive behavioral therapy etc. 6 and half hours is the most sleep I can get. And I am fine with this now. I try not to stress too much over it-however: these celebrities with all their nannies and top-notch plastic surgeons claiming their looks on sleep and water…
Good for her to prioritize sleep and a healthy lifestyle and a lot of discipline working out. However some people don’t have the help and privilege you have now.
Try 5-HTP. I have CFS/Fibro, so poor sleep quality automatically – and this natural substance has been a miracle cure for me.
She’s right. Sleep rejuvenates every part of you—skin, mind, body, soul. It’s why we do it. Cells regenerate or are broken down during this time and replaced with brand spanking new ones. Your mind files the day away like in a card catalog and this is when it is doing its part to keep you sane and prepared to face whatever comes your way the next day. Not sleeping keeps your anxious thoughts front and center and your body has no time to process them or get them out of your head, so it can drive you mad.
As far as sleep tips go, Hecate, you seem to be doing everything right, but the last piece of advice I’ll offer is for you to shower at night, right before bed. You’re literally washing the day away and your body feels it—it destresses too and it might help usher you into a good night’s sleep. Maybe even a calming lotion you put on after your shower with scents you love can help do the trick. No electronics on or nearby, cell phone on silent, no green charging lights disrupting your circadian rhythms. Just darkness. Hope any of this helps!❤️
I have trouble falling asleep, and the before-bed warm bath or shower is very helpful. I read that your body temperature drops as you fall asleep, and that the greater the difference between your temperature when you go to bed and your resting temperature has a positive impact on falling and staying asleep. Within reason of course; parboiling yourself isn’t going to help.
Being super rich and having a staff helps with that stress-free sleep too, I’ll bet. Can’t relate.
I believe her when she says we need more sleep and it is a beauty tip. But everything jlo does is always about deflecting. When it’s about beauty, she wants us to think that it’s all done naturally. We all know she has the best doctors and and the best surgeons and the best botox/filler injectors, and the best trainers and the cooks that will make those healthy recipes, all while she sleeps and doesnt take care of her kids hands on like we normal people do. She also works hard when she does, but there’s always a little disguised shade to others like “nobody works more than me” i dont like that about her, feels pretentious
Wasn’t it Tom Ford who came out and said something like, “olive oil is not what’s keeping your jawline like that?” Basically calling out these celebs who act like they look the way they do from “clean eating” and lots of water and enough sleep and then they use olive oil on their skin and voila! perfection! yeah no. J Lo looks great and good for her, if I looked like her at 50….heck at 40…I would be super proud of myself, lol. But its not because of sleep and drinking enough water.
And i’d like to add the best photoshoppers lol. Catherine zeta jones got asked how she keeps to young, she said “moisturize, moisturize, moisturize”. Yeah right. Ok.
Kudos to Tom Ford and anyone else who calls out the why I look like I’m 30 when I’m 50 BS
LOL now that’s some truth! Edit; my comment is in reply to Lucy, not the stuff below it. At all.
I absolutely envy people who get as much sleep as they want/need.
I’m (currently) far from the worst end of the spectrum but it’s rare I’m feeling fully refreshed. I know all the stuff that makes a difference, both generally and for me specifically but I also know that a combination of 1. choices I make (staying out chatting to neightbours last night rather than getting an early night), 2. factors out of my control (needing to be on camera at 8am today), and 3. totally random things (like the other night when my brain decided to go WILD thinking about how I’ll re-design the garden when we finally get our new extension built) combine to impact the amount and quality of sleep I get.
I get most of this, except for the caffeine. Why do so many of these women celebrities give up caffeine? That I’m just not gonna do.
So one thing I’ll say is that the more sleep I get the less I need caffeine. If I’m going to bed at a reasonable time (i.e. so I can get 8 or 9 hours of sleep) and I’m getting enough sunshine (vitamin D), even after a week of that I can cut out caffeine (as it is I only have two mugs of tea in the AM.) but I really fast only have one mug and then I’m fine without any. I can’t have caffeine after noon as it messes up my sleep too much.
One thing I decided when I got diagnosed with cancer: I was going to prioritize the hell out of hydration and sleep and exercise. Granted a blood cancer will leave you utterly exhausted, but I knew I needed the rest to process all the chemo and give my body the chance it needed to do it’s work with my stem cell transplants. Granted I wasn’t working full time, do not have kids or a significant other and had the extreme good fortune of savings to fall back on, so I am NOT going to give myself a cookie for getting into remission. But my doctors will attest that my efforts added YEARS to my life. People that prioritize others over themselves (wives, mothers, hard working employees) will always pay the price in sanity and health. I do not pat myself on the back for my selfishness, but I am eternally grateful I am still around to form these words and think these thoughts.
So glad you are doing better! XO
Omg, you should give yourself the biggest cookie ever for getting to remission! One can have all the resources in the world but battling cancer is still a battle, a daily battle for life, I can’t imagine the inner resources and courage that it took to fight that battle. Congratulations on winning your battle and making it to remission!
You’re being too hard on yourself. I have kids and a full time job. You’re far from selfish to prioritize your health when you had (have?) a blood cancer.
You deserve credit for understanding what your body needed and taking the steps to ensure it got it. I hate the idea that stretching yourself thin and constantly being on the verge of a breakdown are seen as virtues in our society. I bought into that when I was younger, and it was not worth it.
(1) I love the commenters on this site. There is more grace and decency here then I encounter anywhere else in my life (except oncological nurses, those people are ANGELS ON EARTH).
(2) What I want to stress is: looking pretty is nice, but sleep and hydration and exercise and a positive attitude will SAVE YOUR LIFE. There is no other explanation for me getting to remission other than I prioritized caring for myself above everything else.
(3) Go forth and love and care for yourselves – you are all gorgeous in my eyes in the only way that matters…
RMS – beautiful inside and out. Thank you for sharing your experience.
RMS, thank you for reminding me to do the best I can when I can. It matters. All we can do is the best that we can, and you did things that are so hard for all of us. I have controlled pain, but am awed by what you did to understand and to heal your body. Thank you for sharing your story here.
I got one of those cooling sleep pads and it’s made such a big difference.
Maybe it’s a matter of semantics, but it sounds like you might have anxiety.
I have a lot of anxiety and I can usually sleep, but at odd hours. Like my body wants to be nocturnal. I think it’s partly psychological in that I have so much anxiety, mornings and approaching daytime makes me so stressed that I want to shutdown then, and then feel safer at night.
But, days of stress-induced insomnia warrants a visit to the doctor IMO.
Also, she’s obviously beautiful and “aging well” or whatever, but a lot of these celebrities conveniently leave out the tons of expensive, regular and cosmetic dermatology they use. Lasers, etc. They’re not just using their favorite cream.
Agree, Hecate I’m sorry you are going through this period of insomnia. Losing sleep can be truly maddening and then the anxiety about getting sleep keeps compounding. I am a HSP and need 8 hours of sleep to feel well and myself so I’ve figured out what I need to do to get my best sleep, but when I’m on vacation or my routine gets interrupted I have terrible sleep anxiety – becoming alert at every sound, having weird dreams, waking up throughout the night. It’s like my adrenaline is just ON constantly.
My 2 cents is to google “mindfulness for better sleep” and see if anything there looks interesting or worth a try. A mindfulness coach recently told me that when you are trying to control or force something like sleep your mind and body go into a fight or flight state which is the opposite of relaxation. She said the more curious you are about noises or sensations (even pain – as this technique can be applied to things like headaches) as opposed to resistant and afraid, the more it signals to the brain ‘safety’ vs ‘threat’ which allows the body to relax.
I totally feel you about sleep anxiety. Apparently, there are sleep psychologists and I’d like to see one eventually to see if it helps.
I also got stuck in an emotionally abusive family environment for a few years and got out of it about six months ago, so I’m hoping that helps.
Not many people mentioned their alcohol intake, so I don’t know if most of those commenting have their one a night, but when I quit drinking my sleep quality improved dramatically.
I’ve read that she generally doesn’t drink. Like, she’ll have a champagne toast or occasional glass of wine, but she doesn’t drink much, and not on the regular – per gossip so who knows.
@kego – so true, I sleep much better if I’ve not had anything to drink.
I am a sleeper. I LOVE sleep. I used to be able to fall asleep anywhere if I was tired enough. Don’t disturb my slumber cuz I will cut you!
I’m the type who needs 8 hours or I’m miserable. (Now with perimenopause it’s harder-ugh!) And I’ve always known that sleep makes you look better. It’s why when I was younger and went out to a lounge or club, I would always have to take a “disco” nap beforehand and I’d be good and look refreshed the rest of the night.
I also notice that when I wake up, my lips are fuller and my face plumper in general. When I get home from work, all that plumpness has receded and I don’t look as good. So yeah, JLo ain’t saying nothing I didn’t know since HS. lol
JLo. Is also getting Botox there been a couple of times when she’s had too much Botox where her face looks frozen and she has that wonky eye look.
I have seem Jlo’s untouched photos she looks every bit her age which is fine. But she seems like the type that will stay trying to look exactly how she did in her twenties and use every tool /procedure at her disposal to
She’s confusing sleep with surgical cosmetic procedures where they put you under. It’s all good, Jennifer.
I love sleep and yes, getting enough of it does make you look fresher, fewer shadows under the eyes, less bagging but…
It doesn’t firm up the jawline or make those forehead wrinkles disappear. I try to get enough sleep and I do botox in the forehead. Amazing how fresh I look.
Not everyone is made to sleep that long. I would feel drugged if I slept 9 hours. I do better, and look better at 7 hours. I am a good sleeper though, as long as my cats allow it.
I think she is right about sleep. It is one of the things that help to have better skin along side a calmer mind.
But we all know whlat the celebs do to look younger and she is is not remotley above it inon of them are imo…
As for anti-aging in general, I’m going with sleep, water, sunscreen, Retin A (I’ve used this on and off since my 20s and it’s magic), and Vitamin C. I’ll eventually get periodic laser treatments. More weight bearing-based workouts and yoga. I have under-eye troughs and will absolutely get a sprinkle of filler in that area when the time comes. Real talk, though: nothing beats good genes!
I used to have serious problems with stress at night. I’d stress about anything and everything and couldn’t sleep. Tried all the warm milk, warm bath, progressive relaxation of body parts, etc. Nothing worked, so then I’d stress about not getting enough sleep. Couldn’t drink, smoke pot or take any pills because I was on a regulated medicine program at the time. What finally worked was making a conscious decision that if I couldn’t sleep, at least I could just rest while I was lying there in bed. I would just breathe deeply, avoid stressful thoughts by thinking about pleasurable experiences in the past, and eventually slept.
Been there.
There is research about how people slept before modern times. It was in an article about Europe, I recall, about how strangers slept together in England. Families slept next to other families: People were awake between 11 p.m. and 2-4 a.m. It seemed to be time to exchange ideas, to think creatively, to socialize with the people you trusted as much as was possible because you chose who to place your family and your self next to.
After reading about it, I felt better about what modern society calls sleep disorder. It wasn’t called insomnia, but seems to have endured because of how we as humans needed to survive. It’s how we seem to work, and we haven’t lived in our new paradigm long enough to adapt.
I read until I can’t, like lots of us. Or I get up and look out of the window: Or I visit the internet to read about what other people think. It works, and I am able to stay in REM sleep until the morning after the second phase of sleep.
It may not work for everyone, but so many of us suffer from insomnia. Maybe it’s how humans work? I’m no scientist, but what humans do predicts what we will do in the future in many cases. Maybe all of us wake up in the middle of the night to think? Maybe it I part of who we are.
JLo, God love ya!
Can she get thru 1 day w/o press attention?
I will say she is a damn hard worker. When she commits to a project, she works the PR!
Gotta give her and Tom Cruise credit, they show up and go all out to get their work noticed.
Has anyone watched Marry Me? I watched the trailer, no thanks.
Owen Wilson has become the voice of Lightening McQueen to me.
It’s all I can think of now, the kids have watched all the Cars dvds so often.
She is absolutely 100% correct. A trip to the plastic surgeon’s office also makes you look younger.