"You can't make up on lost sleep. It's just a myth," Aniston said.
Jennifer Aniston admits that she has struggled with restless nights for the past ten years and that she still does. sometimes she has worries about work on her mind, and other times, she stays up for hours on end due to the anxiety of being unable to fall asleep. At first, she ignored it. She thought, "'I got this. I can go the day on five hours of sleep and I'll make up for it over the weekend'… and over time, it was really starting to affect every single part of my daily life," Aniston told USA TODAY.
It became harder to remember her lines for her. The Morning Show actress wasn't as physically fit as she knew she could be during her workouts. Aniston also observed that her complexion did not appear to be "as great and vibrant. I just looked exhausted." Sleeping well "is sort of the last thing on your to-do list," Aniston said, adding that her own difficulties contributed to her desire to raise awareness of National Sleep Awareness Month in March.
"We're so arrogant when we're younger. We think, 'ah, I'll sleep when I'm 80. I can't tell you the number of times I've said that to myself, but you can't make up on lost sleep. It's just a myth," she added, sharing that she'll be joining Seize the Night & Day, a campaign providing educational resources about the health consequences of insomnia.
"We also don't allow ourselves the time to do the things that we need to self-care because we're so on the go, go, go go go," Aniston said, urging others to carve out 20 minutes at night to "turn everything off and just quiet your mind." She added, "It's not easy, but it does help."
The actress has previously also opened up about dealing with insomnia, per Shape Magazine. She didn't prioritize treating her insomnia until she noticed how negatively it was impacting other aspects of her life. "You can't really exercise and you can't really eat right if you haven't slept well, because your body clock is so completely thrown off," she said.
Aniston is promoting various forms of wellness alongside her sleep schedule. The goal of fitness and wellness, she adds, is not to obtain a "quick fix" for looking younger, but to accept aging and flourish from the inside out. "If I tried to look the way I looked at 20, I would not really actually want to do that. It's absolutely impossible," Aniston said. "I want my body to get strong because as I get older, I want my body to thrive. We're all going to get older. We're all headed to that exact same spot. But we can take care of our skin. We can have a healthy diet. We can drink lots of water," added the Friends actor.
She also shared some of her own tips for better sleep. "Meditating every morning, Limiting her screen time, especially before bed, Ending the day with a relaxing, hot bath," she explained.
References:
https://www.shape.com/celebrities/news/jennifer-aniston-insomnia-sleepwalking
Cover Image Source: Getty Images | Photo by Mark Davis
