EDITOR’S NOTE
HOW ’ D YOU SLEEP LAST NIGHT?
If you answered, “Soundly and for the prescribed 71∕2 hours,” bully for you! But if you’re like the third of Americans who don’t get enough z’s, you might have had trouble winding down. It’s not your fault, even if you rolled into one too many episodes of Yellowstone, or doom scrolled, or drank coffee after 3 p.m. or wine after 8 p.m. We all know rest is important. We know how darn good we feel when we manage to get a solid stretch of it. It’s just that our hyper stimulated, task-addled brains aren’t always able to shift into sleep mode when they should.
I can fall asleep like a champ, often in inappropriate places, like the subway, the living room floor, my office. (Our readers do this too. See the weird places they’ve dozed off on page 10.) My issue is staying down. I commonly wake up at 2 or 3 a.m., with my mind puzzling out something that’s not as urgent as it thinks, devising roughly 700 solutions to the not-real problem until it’s time to walk the dog. This despite the magnesium supplement, earplugs, cranked white noise machine, odd-looking but effective eye mask (it’s the one on page 75), mouth guard (hi, I’m a clencher), and super cozy bed piled with soft warm things over sheets so crisp and orderly they’d make a head nurse proud (I’m also a Virgo).
This issue offers help for me and anyone else stalled out on the broken-down struggle bus to the Land of Nod. We scoured the latest studies and talked to MDs and other experts to bring you advice about what to do when you can’t do what you know you should do (“The Realistic Guide to Getting a Good Night’s Sleep,” page 66). We vigorously tested products to find the ones worth your discretionary dollars and crown our Smart Sleep Award winners (“Your Tickets to Snoozeville,” page 72). We also uncover what your sleep position is doing to your body (page 42), share beauty products that give you an overnight glow up (page 18), suggest vacations that aim to improve your sleep hygiene (page 62), and more.
We promised a sleep issue, and we are delivering. I hope it brings you a little more quality shut-eye. Night night!
Lauren Iannotti
EDITOR IN CHIEF
LET’S CONNECT!
Follow me on Instagram at @laureniannotti.
Photography by Felix Wong
STYLING BY LIZZY ROSENBURG; HAIR BY CLAY NIELSEN USING LEONOR GREYL; MAKEUP BY DEBORAH ALTIZIO FOR CREATIVE MANAGEMENT USING GLOSSIER; MAKEUP ASSISTED BY ALYSSA ZABAWA