Category: Sleep

A small summary

Hello everyone!!

This month’s post is going to be a compilation of everything I’ve been writing about on the blog, since I started with three posts in 2015, until I decided to take it more seriously and write a monthly post as part of my goals for the year in 2017.

When I started the blog I wanted to share things that I had discovered by myself, especially through the Internet and from my own experience and that of others, over the years. They were doubts, questions that do not appear so much in beauty magazines and on blogs and YouTube channels, or that in the case of appearing I considered they had wrong or incomplete answers (such as taking the pill if you have acne or resorting to laser if you have hair on your face…). I really wanted to address problems and solutions that I thought were not being publicized enough.

In 2015 I explained how the irrigator (in its eco-friendly and cheap version, the Italian So-Wash) is the secret weapon that dentists do not want you to discover, along with the coconut oil + bicarbonate toothpaste. A toothpaste that also works as a deodorant. I also published the most visited and consulted entry of the entire blog, the one that talks about electrolysis hair removal. A post that I updated later showing the progress of my “do it yourself” results in this regard.

In 2017, I started talking about my experience with hirsutism and acne, I defended Roacutan and Ovusitol against the contraceptive pill and I talked about some simple and cheap measures like aloe vera, castile soap (Dr. Bronners), the importance of changing face towels and the pillowcase (better if it is made of silk) often. I have also talked about the importance of nutrition (the now fashionable smoothies) for the skin and the little-known mineral makeup.

Also in 2017 I dared to confess the existence of tonsil stones and anal blackheads, in the most eschatological blog post. I spoke again about hair, but this time about hair on the head: I was interested in henna as an alternative to dyes and allergies, but I was worried that it would not cover gray hair well.

I also talked about health issues, such as period pain, and how I try to control them by always keeping omeprazole and ibuprofen close at hand, in my emergency bag. Or the problem of belonephobia, so poorly treated by most health professionals and which causes serious trauma to many people. I still hadn’t found a definitive solution to this issue, but reading the book Overcoming Medical Phobias gave me some hope. Trying psychological treatments (hypnosis, neurolinguistic programming) gradual exposure (with images, videos…) and using the applied tension of the muscles could be the key. In my case, I also think that choosing a different site from which to draw the blood (perhaps the hand and not the inside of the elbow) could have an influence. I’ve been working on this for the past few months, and I’ve gone from feeling a bit dizzy just reading or watching videos about it, to being able to tolerate it (at least from a distance). I also think that the time of day influences, since for example I have the lowest blood pressure and I am weaker in the morning, which is precisely when the blood extraction procedure is done (and on an empty stomach). A reader advised me to use Buzzy and I have it ready to try in the future. What I’d really like to try though is the Seventh Sense Biosystems TAP. I keep writing them to see how to acquire it but it seems that at the moment only certain laboratories have it (I have also written to them and they do not respond). I hope it is only a matter of time, because it gives me the impression that there may be the solution. Other alternatives are the use of Vacutainer or butterfly needles for extractions. I had considered these alternatives, so I would also like to try. Anyway, hopefully in the future I can write a post explaining how I finally solved the issue. It would be my personal big hit on these issues, along with the discovery of electrolysis :))

In the blog I have also shared my personal manias, such as my rejection to long nails (which does not mean that I do not take care of my hands), my rejection of feet, of absurd fashion stupidities like ripped pants, my horror of intestinal parasites and of noise. And I have defended the use of the forgotten bidet, protection from the sun but not with creams, internal and external hydration and attention to the lymphatic system.

Some posts include novel therapies, such as the natural solution to myopia (including much cheaper glasses), a problem that I had previously discussed. In this regard, I recently read a piece of news about some drops to solve myopia developed by a university in Israel … I’ll be watching too. Hopefully ending myopia without surgery will my third hit :))

*To buy the products I speak about (I only recommend products that I’ve tested):

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*From the United States:

·Buzzy: https://amzn.to/2ZTLvDF

*From Mexico:

·Buzzy: https://www.buzzy.com.mx/

*From Spain:

·Buzzy: https://amzn.to/2RUnzMh

Silk pillowcases

Hello!!

In this month’s post I am going to talk about something that I think many people don’t know. At least I did not know it and when I found out about it it seemed very logical. This is a beauty hack that comes pays off over time. Let’s get to the point: rather, to the wrinkle.

For some time it has been circulating on the Internet that using silk pillowcases reduces the formation of wrinkles. Even at 33 years old wrinkles are not something that worries me too much, perhaps because of how long it took me to get out of the acne trauma. But I think it is time to pay a little attention to this issue. As I said in the post about the sun, for me the most important thing in terms of wrinkles is that the sun does not shine on your face. Like a geisha face. Not to mention the formation of spots, moles, etc. that one prevents. Another very important aspect is to drink water, not to smoke or drink alcohol, not to apply too much foundation because the skin does not breathe (sorry for those who cannot do without this, however, a good option is mineral makeup). I am not a fan of anti-wrinkle-anti-aging creams nor do I use them, I also said in another post that it seems more useful, when the time comes, to invest that money in going to a doctor and getting filled with vitamins-hyaluronic acid-collagen and so on, than go around testing unnatural creams.

But back to silk pillowcases. According to Dr. Google, it is an Asian (I think Chinese) beauty hack that has been used for centuries. The idea is that cotton is a moisture-wicking fabric: that’s why towels are made of cotton. So, if one spends 8 hours a day sleeping, all her life, with her face resting on a cotton pillowcase, what happens is that her skin loses water, becomes dehydrated, and that favors the appearance of wrinkles. In addition, having your face resting on the pillow causes it to “squeeze”, waking up with pillow marks on the face, and wrinkles form as well. And not only on the face but also, to those who have big breasts, in the neckline. Ideally, you should sleep on your back and not rest your face on either side. I’m trying to sleep on my back, but it seems a bit impossible. Does anyone sleep on their back? So, buying some silk covers (which because of the material are soft and do not “rub” against the skin or take away moisture) seemed much more feasible.

I started searching and it turns out that real silk pillowcase are quite expensive. Although they do seem like a good investment, because they can last you many years. But what I did was to buy some that, although they are called “Spasilk”,  are not made of silk. They are made of polyester. This fabric comes from oil and resists moisture, so is not recommended for shirts. Well, that’s supposed to be what we want for the face, that the pillowcase doesn’t absorb the moisture from our skin.

According to the Internet, silk pillowcases also help prevent hair from frizz and prevent acne. Regarding the latter, I have already explained that I use each pillowcase 4 times (one for each side, then I reverse it and use it other two times). I do this because my face and hair rest there each night, and they’re not always that clean.

Finally I bought a real silk pillowcase. Y already had the White Lotus silk sleeping mask. I only use it for naps, because where I live now they don’t know what blinds are and I like sleeping in darkness. This brand also has silk pillowcases.

Silk pillowcases, an Asian luxury

Until next post!!

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Noise and silence

Hello! In this month’s post I am going to talk about noise pollution and silence. I love silence. It’s not that I don’t like music, but I love being at home, or at work, and that there is silence. I don’t like working with music or noise. When I move to a new house (and I have lived in a few since I was a student and later with my jobs around the world), I worry a lot about if my new home is, for example, near a pub, shopping street or road, about what kind of neighbors I have, etc. I get stressed by traffic noise and by having noisy neighbors, or by being forced to listen to anyone’s privacy. Anyway, part of this “mania” comes from when I had to suffer a neighbor who spent her time having sex at full blast and hitting the wall next to me, to the point that I had to move. It was useless talking to her. I really think after that I developed some kind of post-traumatic stress. However, the noise of babies and children does not bother me so much.

For quite a few years, I believe that since I was a student, I often sleep with earplugs. I found that they helped me to rest better, since my parents’ house overlooks a road and when I slept late or took a nap the noise bothered me. I use foam earplugs. I tried one of those silicone tailor-made earplugs, which are more hygienic, but they didn’t remove noise better. Besides, they fell off from my ears and the foam ones did not. Foam earplugs are the ones that seal the ear the most and can be washed (although I think they lose effectiveness). Since they cost very little, I wear them for about two weeks and move on to another pair. I wonder if by putting the earplugs so far in, I might be creating earwax plugs or preventing the earwax from coming out. I have always thought that I would exchange my myopia for hearing worse, because unfortunately it turns out that I hear excessively well.

If only houses were better made. I was in one that had double windows and yeah, there was really an isolation from the noise of the street, it was amazing. Also, walls and ceilings could be thicker, especially on the floors so as not to have to listen to the neighbors or be heard. Although what I see is also a lot of lack of manners, especially in people who listen to music at full volume and at times that are not appropriate. Another issue, it is assumed that in the future electric cars will no longer make noise … hopefully someone will invent bluetooth car horns, hahaha.

But since trying to change people is useless, I wanted to share some technological solutions that I found on the internet. Apparently, what traditional earplugs do is to reduce noise, they cannot eliminate it completely. For example, the earplugs that reduce the most noise reach approximately 32 decibels. That is what they take away from the noise there is, but absolute silence is impossible because one would begin to listen to their own blood circulation. I wonder if that’s what you hear when you hear a seashell, as a kid I was always told that what we heard are sea waves 😊

The fact is that some devices have already been invented, and they counteract external noise. That is, they cancel the waves of the outside noise and generate waves in an opposite phase, canceling or mitigating the incoming waves. I read about a device that was worn at home to mitigate the noise that enters through the window, but it seems that where this technology has been most developed is in headphones. These are headphones designed so that you can listen to your music without turning it at full volume because you are on the subway, for example. They cancel out outside noise. The ones I found are from the Bose brand and are called Quietcomfort. Opinions on this are very good. A man says he puts them on to walk around Barcelona so that he doesn’t get stressed out by noise.

But the newest thing that interests me the most are the sleeping plugs that this brand has released. They are quite new and at the moment they are only sold in the United States, but if they are really effective, the two hundred euros they cost would not hurt so much. Some opinions that I have read say that it changes lives. A lot is said about exercise and eating to have a healthy life (mainly focusing on being thin), but not much attention is paid to the need to sleep enough and well and to be relaxed, which I think is as important or more for health.

Apparently there has already been some other similar initiative by some Asians, but it seems that they did not have a very good customer service. The idea regarding these earplugs, which in the case of Bose are called “Wireless Noise-Masking Sleepbuds”, is to carry earplugs with wireless technology with up to 16 hours of battery life (so that they last all night and more). They incorporate wave technology to counteract outside noise by emitting soft white and relaxing noises (such as ocean waves, rain …). You can configure them to sound the alarm clock, so that they don’t wake your partner up. The device promises to cancel outside noises and snoring. It seems great to me (I know that snoring causes problems for couples, and I didn’t think about the alarm thing, since I always hear it when it sounds, even with my earplugs). But I wish I didn’t have to hear any noise (not even the white noise). Apparently, this is not possible. I have tried the white noise thing before (for example, the kitchen extractor) and it is true that it isolates other noises quite a bit and that it relaxes. The hair dryer also produces that white noise, so effective in putting babies to sleep. And, paradoxically, the engines of such annoying cars, which is why I think being in a car makes me so sleepy.

High technology earplugs

Finally, I hope this technology will improve. I find it incredible that with so many people living in big cities and crowded in apartments, houses continue to be made with walls and windows that seem like paper. And those of us who rent do not have the option of doing works to isolate the house from noise. The rudeness of some with the issue of noise is also quite incredible … I just hope that, since entrepreneurship and start-ups are so fashionable, some enlightened person creates that artifact and/or cutting-edge technology that allows people to sleep in absolute silence.

UPDATE!!: I finally bought a white noise machine and it is what I’ve been using when there was noise outside or from neighbors. White noise is the noise that babies hear when they are in their mother’s womb, it is the background noise of the waves of the sea, the kitchen extractor, the hair dryer, even the car engine noise makes me sleep…a noise that relaxes and covers other noises. They say it also helps babies sleep.

*To buy the products I speak about (I only recommend products that I’ve tested):

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases

*From the United States:

*From Mexico:

*From Spain: