Tip of the day for the rest of your days...

So now that you're on your way to fixing your sleeping habits, it's time to take care of the dark bags under your eyes. This is an easy one! Remember the chamomile tea you used as a sleeping aid? Make sure to save your tea bags and let them sit in cold water. Before you go to bed, place the cool chamomile tea bags over your eyes for 10 minutes. This will remove the dark circles and diminish the puffiness under your eyes. 2 birds 1 stone, just like that! Leave the panda look to the real pandas.

Dark circles appear under the eyes for several reasons and one being the lack of sleep. The skin under your eyes are the thinnest on the body. The dark bluish colour is caused by broken capillaries in the eye lids. When you aren't giving your body and internal organs time to rest, it has to work over time and can result in these broken capillaries which show through the thin skin.

Now, if you're allergic to ragweeds and cannot use chamomile tea bags, there are many alternative methods for dark puffy eyes. But here are two simple alternatives:

1. Almond oil: Apply almond oil before bed using your ring finger. The skin under your eyes are very delicate. Strong pulling and pressure will lead to premature wrinkles. Your ring finger is normally the weakest finger and therefore will not put as much pressure on the skin under your eyes.

2. Cucumber slices soaked in salt water: Place soaked cucumbers over eyes for 10 minutes. Keep your eyes closed.

Tip of the day for the rest of your days...

How many times have you tried to get a good night's rest before a final exam or a job interview or on just a regular work/school day? How many of you have experienced a sense of anxiety not being able to sleep before an important day? And how often has that anxiety made it tougher for you to fall asleep? Insomnia sucks! But don't worry, there's an easy fix for it. Chamomile tea. Sip a glass of chamomile tea an hour before bed to calm your nerves and it will put you into a state of full relaxation. Your anxieties will just melt away and in no time you'll be dreaming of acing that exam! Happy sleeping!

Chamomile contains relaxants that act as depressants to calm the nerves. It has also been found to help metabolize caffeine consumed throughout the day. Chamomile also works as an anti-inflammatory and anti-ulcer herb. 

*Note: Like anything else, use chamomile in moderation. Frequent use may decrease its effectiveness. Insomnia can be caused by many factors. It is in your best interest to figure out what is keeping you awake and fixing the root of the problem. Other causes of insomnia may be high or low blood pressure, low hemoglobin levels, hormonal changes, depression etc.

If you're allergic to ragweed, chamomile may not be your best option. Instead, just try the old-fashioned method of warm milk and if you're lactose, you can always try to remove certain stimulus' such as a tv, computer, cellphone etc. Removing a wall clock or flipping over an alarm clock may also help prevent anxiety from arising when constantly checking the time. Chamomile users should also use these methods to enhance the sleeping aid.

Sidenote: I am currently studying a special massage technique developed by Dr. Bin Jiang Wu called Wu's Head Massage (WHM). This technique is specialized towards cosmetic anti-aging and migraine and insomnia suffering patients. If anyone is interested and would like more information about WHM, please leave me a comment below and I will get back to you as soon as possible.