Do you want to eradicate aging signs and restore your youthful look? Facelift surgery is the most effective and safe way to rejuvenate, uplift, and tighten your facial structure. Like other plastic surgeries, facelift surgery takes time to heal, and the side effects are diverse, among which are numbness, bruising, hematoma, infection, and lack of sleep due to pains.
Sleeping on the back while keeping the head at an elevated position is the best way to ensure you can enjoy better and longer sleep. However, if that fails, consider the following tips to improve the quality of your night’s sleep.
1. Prepare Your Bed Appropriately
Facelift surgery takes approximately two to three weeks to heal, and during that period, you’re not allowed to engage in hard labor. Cleaning the house, standing for hours, or preparing meals will become a hassle. Therefore, before heading to the surgery room, clean your home and prepare enough food.
To maintain the best sleep posture to support healing, reduce swelling and improve your night sleep, get highly-comfortable pillows. The pillows will keep your head slightly elevated and minimize discomfort, ensuring you can sleep longer.
2. Manage Swelling
You feel uncomfortable when sleeping after facelift surgery because of swelling. You can use a cold compress with a cloth wrapping to minimize the swelling. Cold compress slows blood flow around the facelift area to eradicate swelling and reduce inflammation. It keeps the area comfortable and fastens the healing process.
3. Avoid Stress
Immediately after the facelift surgical procedure, your appearance won’t be so attractive because of the swelling and bruising. However, your face will conform to its original shape but with a more attractive facial structure after some time. Do not stress yourself so much when you view yourself in the mirror. Understand that the scrunched-up skin close to the ears and puffed-up eyes will soon fade.
Dr. Andrew Jacono, a renowned cosmetic surgeon in New York, will tell you that stress can worsen swelling, prolong recovery time, and affect your night’s sleep.
4. Exercise But not Heavily
Your surgeon will tell you that heavy lifts and strenuous activities can worsen the complications and make you take longer to heal. However, no study has prohibited facelift surgical patients from getting out and moving around. However, facelift surgery does not directly affect your manly muscles and joints, so it won’t leave you bedridden.
As you go through the recovery process, you should engage in activities that stimulate blood circulation. Remember, exercising has been proven to be an effective mechanism for boosting night sleep.
5. Avoid Coffee and Alcohol
Energy drinks, alcohol, and caffeine-infused drinks have been linked to sleep disruption. Some people drink coffee, black tea, and alcohol when they want to stay awake for hours.
If you’re going to enjoy your night’s sleep following facelift surgery, you’ll need to avoid these drinks. Instead of caffeinated beverages, you can go for herbal tea or medical-marijuana-infused pain-relieving and relaxation drinks. Talk with your doctor to know which drinks suit you best, depending on your health condition.
Seek Help
One of the biggest mistakes post-facelift surgery patients make is assuming everything will be okay and that seeking help is unnecessary. Facelift surgical procedure may not leave you bedridden but don’t forget you have a swelling and bruised face to deal with. If you have to do every house chore by yourself, you’ll have to deal with the pains of stressing the muscles close to the face area with the surgical wound.
Instead of putting yourself through the stress and doubling your pain, why not seek the assistance of a friend or family. Most loved ones will be more than willing to support you and assist with house chores until you heal.
Discomforts, pain, and swelling are some of the leading causes of disturbed sleep in post-facelift-surgery patients. If you’re uncomfortable and experience extreme pain at night, it will be difficult to fall asleep and remain asleep for the recommended hours. Those mentioned above are the most effective ways to reduce swelling, discomfort, and pain to enjoy a good night’s sleep. Make sure you’re sleeping on a comfortable and relaxing mattress, and do not forget to stay active and drink lots of water.
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