Elizabeth Franklin ([info]dear_lizzy) wrote,
@ 2006-02-07 19:30:00
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Spotty and Sleepless
Dear Lizzy,

I have a dreadful breakout of acne that I can't seem to get rid of. I get it now and then, but a breakout of this magnitude is kind of unusual for my skin. Nothing seems to help-- moisturizing, washing regularly, acne cleansing soaps...

I am considering seeing a dermatologist but I kind of want to avoid ending up taking prescriptions or using anything harshly chemical.

What products, methods etc. would you (and/or your readers) recommend?

Spotty

Dear Spotty,

First off, consider things like:
- Your stress level
- Whether you've been rubbing/touching your face a lot
- Whether you've been around when greasy foods are being cooked/where there's lots of pollution ick in the air

Some people - especially women - can continue to have acne issues into their 40s and 50s. Despite popular myth, it is NOT caused by eating too much sugar or fatty foods.

Acne is caused by oil and dead skin cells clogging pores, and bacteria in the pores replicating quickly in this ideal (for them) breeding ground. Outbreaks can be exaggerated by hormones (especially around the time of menstruation for women) and stress. Friction (hats, tight collars, backpacks ((for acne on back)), helmets, etc) can also cause a flare-up. Picking at pimples also tends to spread the inflammation by pushing the bacteria deeper into lower layers of skin.

According to health.yahoo.com, here are some things you can do about it yourself.

Washing your face twice a day with warm water and a mild soap will help remove dead skin cells and excess oil. However, scrubbing vigorously or using harsh soaps or alcohol-based products will irritate your skin and make acne worse. If your hair is oily, you might want to wash it every day.

Exposure to grease, such as working around frying foods, or using pore-clogging cosmetics or hair products can also worsen acne. While mild sun exposure can lessen the redness of acne, excessive exposure to ultraviolet rays from sunlight or a sunlamp can damage skin.

For myself, I'd start with:
  • Wash your face twice a day with a wash cloth (not just hands and soap) and mild, soapy water. Don't use alcohol or anything terribly abrasive.
  • Pay attention to whether you're eating a lot of sugar or fatty foods. While they don't cause acne, eating comfort foods may be an indicator that you're suffing from a great deal of stress. Stress management would be a different column....
  • Keep your hands away from your face. If you have an outbreak in a particular location, watch yourself and see if that's a place where you tend to rest your face on your hands.
  • Stay away from greasy/polluted environments if you can, places where there's a lot of gunk in the air.
  • Consider whether it's really acne - it could also be an allergic rash, hives, etc. (This is also something to talk to the doctor about).

If none of this helps, go see the dermatologist. There are a variety of treatments available depending on the severity of the acne, from topical prescription creams, to pills, to - get this - light wave therapy. For more information, read http://health.yahoo.com/ency/healthwise/hw199515;_ylt=Ao0tjgLlFLpxAIfSq0pjBbb9urcF.

Good luck!

Dear Lizzy,

How do I make myself go to sleep when I'm tired but not sleepy, and I know that I have to be up early in the morning? I stopped drinking caffeine entirely because of insomnia issues, and by the time I realize that I can't fall asleep, it's too late to take melatonin or Benadryl and still be able to wake up in the morning. Help!

Too Tired to Think Up a Clever Name

Dear Too Tired,

Are you speaking of a one-off "have to be up early tomorrow" or a regular wake-up time? If the first, exercise a lot in the morning and early afternoon. Physically wear yourself out. Exercising too close to bed time, on the other hand, can be refreshing and energizing and simply help you to stay awake, but to feel good whilst doing so! ...yeah, not real helpful, come the next morning.

Also, figure out if anything is worrying you. Stress is a well-known perpetrator of sleepless nights. Again (as above), stress management would be a separate column.

Watch for a reply from [info]nontacitaire - she has a great deal of experience with this, but was on the way out the door as I called this evening for input. In her absence, I'll tell you what I remember of what she's said in the past, and things that I know work for me.

If the sleepless issue is ongoing, consider improving your sleep hygeine.
  • Try to go to bed at about the same time every night. The body has a rhythm, and while it can be broken once in awhile, breaking it too often will confuse your body.
  • If you feel like you need a nap during the day, TAKE ONE, but keep it to about a half an hour. Getting too little sleep can actually cause sleeplessness, but being too refreshed can also keep you from being tired.
  • Create a bedtime ritual, something that takes perhaps half an hour, which will train your body to an almost Pavlovian it's-time-to-sleep-now response. This might include: changing into night clothes, brushing teeth & hair, washing face, going to the bathroom, reading for 15-20 minutes (I suggest poetry, or something broken into small segments), etc. Jumping jacks? Not really recommended, but it may work for some people.
  • Lie down and focus on your breathing, and nothing else. Sigh a few times - it relaxes the body. Alternately, count to three as you exhale. The exhale time should be leisurely but not something you have to struggle to maintain.
  • If you haven't fallen asleep after lying down for an hour, GET OUT OF BED. If you train your body that the bed is a place where you lie down and don't sleep, it will become a habit. Go do something else for half an hour - read, watch TV.... or, if you feel particularly hyper, now is the time to try 10-20 push-ups, situps, leg lifts - or all of the above. When you feel sleepy again, return to bed and lie down for another hour, concentrating on your breathing - rinse, lather, repeat.

Alternately, if you have the, um, "means" handy, sex is a wonderful soporific.

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Replies
[info]dear_lizzy
2006-02-08 01:33 am UTC (link)
This is copy & pasted from an email sent by my Taiwanese friend, Yuhfen.

To Spotty:
I heard some people say that eating more
healthy food, like vegetables, seems to help too. Actually nuts are the
worse. Stay away from them.
Another personal experience. Once I have a chance to get a free facial,
so I went for it. After the facial, my face stay in good shape for a few
month. I normally get a few acne here and there. And for that period of
time, I didn't get any. I guess that was because getting the facial
really clean the face well. Of course, that depend on where you get it
too. That's why I haven't get another facial since that place closed
already.

To Sleepless:
For sleepless, light music and hot shower help too.
From my six month sleep trouble, since my sleepless was from stress and
can't shut my thinking down, play some light music actually help me to
keep my mind free. Just play in low volume so you can fall sleep in it.

I guess I did get the sleep back after my surgery, since I slept way
more than I normally need.

Yuhfen

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[info]kenllama
2006-02-08 02:59 am UTC (link)
:: sex is a wonderful soporific::

I have often found sex to be many -rific things, but sopor- is not often one of them ;) More often, I find it wakes me up (unless pursued in the middle of the night, in which case it makes for a nice almost-wakeful interlude).

This could be why boys, it is said, like sex in the morning...

Of course, even if it doesn't make you sleepy, it may still make you happier about being awake!


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you may unscreen this
[info]nontacitare
2006-02-08 05:18 am UTC (link)
Most of the advice already given is very good. As someone with a major sleep disorder (delayed sleep phase syndrome), I have only a few things to add.

1) If you've been getting less than four hours sleep a night for more than three months, see a doctor who will refer you to a sleep clinic. There could be serious underlying medical conditions, or even just a weird vitamin deficiency that can be easily fixed, but only diagnosed by someone who knows what to look for.

2) If the problem is stress, there are relaxation and sleep CDs that are very helpful. Also, a book of short stories can distract and relax you without sucking you in so you want to keep reading.

3) A warm bath can help. Adding lavender oil or sleep bath salts to the bath can also help.

4) You might want to drink chamomile tea before bed, or if that doesn't work, then tea with valerian in it.

5) Isocones (which use acupressure) can work wonders.

6) Is there any way you can rearrange your schedule to get up later? Medically, that would probably be the best thing (although real life doesn't allow it to happen that often.

7) Stay away from the computer. If you have one in your bedroom, turn it completely OFF before you go to bed. Its electromagnetic waves are known to interfere with sleep.

8) Turn down the heat before you go to bed; if you don't have curtains and shades on your windows, install them; if you can hear cars from your bedroom, use some sort of white noise at night, such as a humidifier or air purifier.

9) Go for a half hour walk in daylight each day.

A note on drugs: I highly recommend you don't use Benadryl to help you sleep. For some people it acts as a stimulant. Even if it makes you drowsy, you won't go through a proper sleep cycle, and it will be harder to sleep the next day without it.

Melatonin is a hormone released by the pineal gland each night which causes us to fall asleep. Melatonin supplements aren't sleeping pills per se; they basically jump-start your body's ability to fall asleep. If you're capable of sleeping, and just have problems falling asleep as early as you want to, melatonin can help, but shouldn't be taken long term, or your body will forget how to produce its own melatonin.

Last, sex is NOT a soporific for many people. According to my doctor at the sleep clinic, it frequently has the opposite effect in women. What sex does is release endorphines, which counteracts stress and causes relaxation. For people who don't have sleep problems, pleasure and relaxation can encourage sleep. However, according to The Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting a Good Night's Sleep:

some people find that having sex stimulates rather than relaxes them. After sex, they remain wide awake - maybe satisfied and happy, but still wide awake!...If that sounds like you, you may want to choose to have sex a little earlier in the evenings so that you have a chance to unwind before sleep, or in the mornings so you'll be really ready to roll when the alarm goes off.

Sorry to have written so much. Good luck, and good night.

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Re: advice needed
[info]dear_lizzy
2006-02-15 02:30 am UTC (link)
First off, hair will be disgustingly greasy if you wash it every day, and then stop doing so. Washing it every day forces the scalp to work really hard to maintain the right amount of oil on the hair - it also makes the hair ends more brittle. The solution? It's to have really disgusting hair for 2-4 weeks, I'm afraid, (and sometimes more) as your hair re-adjusts to less-frequent washing.

I wash my hair once a week - twice, if I step up the amount of exercise I'm doing, or if the weather becomes significantly warmer and I'm sweating more.

Hair does fall out at an alarming-looking rate - I can kill vacuum cleaners with what falls out of my head in a single day, I think. A week, definitely. Also, hair goes in cycles - approximately every 4-5 years, more hair than normal does fall out for a period of about a year, and new hair starts growing. Also, stress will make one more inclined to lose hair.

I will be honest: some parts of having good hair are simple genetics. However, there are some things you can do to allow your hair to live up to its full potential.

  • Eat lots of green, leafy veggies - daily!
  • Take a daily vitamin pill.
  • Exercise regularly. It increases the circulation to the scalp, promoting hair growth.
  • Give yourself (or have someone give you) a daily scalp massage. Again, it improves circulation.
  • Reduce your stress levels - ditto.
  • Wash your hair only once a week.
  • Don't use a hair dryer or curling iron.
  • Don't brush your hair whilst it's wet.
  • Use good-quality hair bands in your hair - fabric and leather preferably, rather than rubber. Try styles that allow you to put the band towards the bottom of your hair rather than in the middle of the hair. The more friction the hair gets, the more likely it is to be damaged.
  • Use a natural boar-bristle brush. (This I've heard recommended; personally, I use only a comb.)

As to keeping hair under control - there's a reason I got good at braiding. It's fast, it's easy, it keeps it from getting caught in car doors and chairs, and it's less damaging to the hair than wearing a pony tail holder high up on the hair. Good luck!

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[info]dear_lizzy
2006-02-15 02:31 am UTC (link)
The short answer? Make yourself visible, helpful, friendly-looking, and cool.

Now, how do you do that?
  • Attend events that you're interested in, especially ones that encourage audience participation and interaction.
  • Volunteer to help out, especially at things like the registration desk and con suite. The concom will love you, and you'll get to interact with people in a steady but not overwhelming dose. Make small talk - "Did you have to travel far to get to the convention? How was your trip? How are you enjoying the convention? Seen any particularly good panels?"
  • Look people in the eyes and smile at them.
  • Work on hand crafts in the con suite or a convenient portion of a hallway that is busy enough that people see you, but with enough space for them to stop and admire your work. Really, the con suite is a better place. Make sure the handcraft is visually interesting, but one that doesn't take all of your attention to work on. You will look fascinating; people will come to you. I've even had this work whilst writing in a paper journal in the con suite. (I actually really wanted to finish what I was writing about, but I put it aside and enjoyed the conversation instead).
  • Listen to conversations in the con suite. Make eye contact and smile. If conversations are general, or the participants seem like they're just getting to know each other anyway, join in. If they're intent on something, really into each other in particular, or are shy themselves, that may engender the cold shoulder reaction you describe - you've just surprised and thrown them a bit.
  • Do research before hand - Google the convention, see if you can find blogs that talk about people planning to go. If any of them seem like interesting people, email/post a reply to their entry, telling them that you'll be a stranger to the convention, and shy, and what things are particularly fun to do? Chat with them, and if they continue to seem like interesting people, make arrangements to meet them.
  • Look like you're having fun at whatever you are doing. People who are having fun are people that other people want to have fun with.
  • When talking, ask open-ended questions, and *listen* to the replies. Don't ask questions that can be answered with one word, but also don't ask questions that require lengthy and detailed replies. Be interested in what the other person has to tell you.
  • Seek out other people who aren't having conversations, and strike one up. Sometimes it's the book reader in the corner who would love to talk but is trying to look like they don't mind that they don't have anyone to talk to either. If they really don't want to be talked to, they'll tell you, and that's fine.
  • Take advantage of autograph lines. Ask people on either side of you about themselves, about what they're getting signed, about when/how they got into fandom (in general or for this particular person whose autograph they want).
  • Try to find out some neat thing about each person you talk to. Everyone has something special about them - see if you can find out what it is. It may even be that they make you reconsider your own perspective on life, because theirs is so different.
  • Be confident that *you* have something to contribute to a conversation, have something useful to say. This is easier if you are in the midst of doing things you love to do - see the first point about going to the sorts of panels that you're interested in.
  • Compliment someone else's buttons/craftwork/clothing. Ask them where they got the item/how long they've been working on it/where they learned the craft.
  • Wear a button that says "Talk to me - I'm new here!" or "Hi, I'm shy. Feel free to talk to me."
  • If you're feeling really daring, you might even put a message up on the message board looking for dinner companions.

Try it - I know you're an intelligent, talented woman. All you need is a bit of practice. You'll do fine.

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[info]dear_lizzy
2006-02-22 03:01 pm UTC (link)
When my work schedule is too busy and/or I'm too tired to "really" exercise, I sneak in bits of exercise when I have a moment. In the restrooms I'll do maybe 10 leg lifts, or 10 squats, or at home I might do 10 reps of bicep curls with my weights, or 10 pushups. It takes less than a minute to do one small unit. It does bugger all for cardiovascular health, but it does help to retain/re-develop muscle tone. The gradually (and gently) improved muscle tone will also help you when you *do* start to do aerobics again, making you beat yourself up less for how hard it is.

That's an important point - do you best not to beat yourself up. Anyone who has slacked off on exercise for awhile will find exercise much harder than it was when they exercised regularly. Mothers who have had the strain of carrying a child for 9 months, gained weight, and are getting too little sleep because of the baby have many, many more reasons why exercise will be physically more difficult. Don't believe the weight you gained should make a big difference to your ability to exercise? Try carrying around a hand weight of the amount you gained. It can be stunning how much a relatively small amount of weight can tire one out. So - go easy on yourself. Don't think that means that you're excused from exercising, but allow yourself the grace of knowing that you *will* recover, and that it's perfectly fine for the exercise to be harder for you right now.

When doing the videos, push yourself to do the best you can - but when it becomes too much, don't stop the video. Just march in place, let your breathing steady itself, and reassure yourself that you *will* regain the toning and endurance necessary to complete the video. When your breathing is steady, continue with the video. Lather, rinse, repeat. Be well, and congratulations on motherhood!

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about that spotty skin
[info]valleyviolet
2006-05-07 06:27 pm UTC (link)
It's fine to unscreen this. Also, I appoligize for my spelling.

Spotty, you should consider talking to your regular doctor about this the next time you are in for a checkup. A really violent cyclic outbreak like that may very well be hormonally related.

I had a similar problem where I would often break out quite badly even into my early twenties. Nothing I did had any impact on it. I thought I just had to live with it, but an alert and intelligent doctor sent me for blood tests and discovered that I actually have a hormonal imbalance called polycystic ovarian syndrome (probably spelled that wrong). Essentially my body was producing too many masculine hormones and that was causing my breakouts. The doctor put me on inexpensive medicines to block the excess hormones and over the next month my skin cleared up miraculusly. I haven't had a major problem since.

Anyway, it can't hurt to talk to your doctor. Emphasise that you aren't comfortable costly or side-effect heavy medication and good doctors will try to find other alternatives for you. Most doctors that work in a more low income situation (like free clinics or a student health center) have to learn a lot of ways to help their patients with little money, so if you're seeing someone like that, it's definitely worth asking!

Another thing to consider if you take birth control pills already is switching to ortho-tricycline or whatever the generic equivalent is. I have a friend who swears by the stuff, and if you are already taking pills I don't believe switching over is very expensive or in any way unpleasant.

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