Jennifer Aniston is starring in a new ad for sleep and sharing her struggles with insomnia for the Seize the Night and Day campaign, which makes the point that bad sleep makes for bad days.
In the new commercial, the 54-year-old actress lies awake in bed listening to a meditation, part of her real-life bedtime routine, according to a recent interview with Women’s Health. She also revealed that bad sleep has led to bad workouts.
Celebrity trainer and consultant Jill Charton finds it “refreshing” that Aniston takes a holistic approach to her health. “Many people do not consider that sleep affects our workouts, recovery, hormones and especially our mental state,” Charton said. “Having a healthy lifestyle is so much more than getting your sweat session in on the daily.”
Charton said that “sometimes, focusing on both our quality of sleep and nutrition will trump our time in the gym,” so it’s important to truly understand your sleeping patterns. “How much REM and deep sleep are you getting per night? What’s your quality of sleep?”
Aniston also revealed that pushing herself to work out on a lack of sleep resulted in a back injury.
“Having worked in physical therapy, this is where it is crucial to stay mentally positive when we’re overcoming an injury,” Charton said. “We might not feel like putting in 100% every day in the gym and that’s OK! When we show up for ourselves consistently, it’s putting ourselves first, and we will become healthier mentally, physically and emotionally,” she said.
Aniston admitted her favorite body part to work on is her legs, but knows “all muscles are created equal,” Charton wishes everyone had that mindset about fitness.
“Unfortunately with social media, women are focusing on butt and core with bikini season around the corner,” Charton said. “We should change our focus to movement as a whole, and moving throughout the day. Just like Jennifer said, ‘You can’t just choose one part, you can’t spot train.’”
TMX contributed to this story.
