One of the worst things about the piles of stress that school and life throw upon you are the sleepless nights that come along with the stress. And, you know what sleepless nights lead to? Horrible dark bags under your eyes that make you look ten times more tired than you probably are. Believe me, I know how annoying these are. I’ve always had the worst ones, ever since school really started to get stressful. Here are a five ways that I deal with them.

1. More sleep!! Look, I completely understand how hard it is to have a stable bedtime, and I’m probably the biggest violator of this, but getting more sleep will help out with your bags. Your eyes will become less puffy, and not only will your bags slowly shrink, part of your stress will, too. The more you sleep, the more relaxed you’ll be throughout the day. You’ll have a better mindset for problem solving and for getting things done during the day.
2. Moisturizing also helps a lot. Mostly focused eye creams work best for this, but any type of face cream would work. Focus it under your eyes, especially right before you go to sleep. That way, while you’re sleeping the moisturizer can sink into your skin and hydrate it. The reason why your eyes are so puffy is because, according to webmd, water builds up under your eyes and causes them to puff up. Hydrating your eyes will be the best way to solve this.
3. Take more breaks during the day, and don’t let the stress build up. Stress and exhaustion are also a bad combination for your eyes. It increases the puffiness, stress, and shadows. Take more breaks during the day, non-stop working and stressing not only creates bad bags but also health problems too. Some stress can be good, but a lot of stress is bad.
4. Face masks can help too, in the same way that moisturizers help. They help to de-puff your eyes and hydrate them. They are miracle workers. I don’t recommend getting super cheap ones, because those can cause you to break out. Stick to well-known and well-reviewed brands.
5. Hot steamed towels are amazing, and my favorite way in dealing with puffy eye bags; not to mention, they feel amazing after a long, stressful day.

Eye bags won’t go away over night, or through one face mask. Regularly doing any of these steps, and taking care of yours eyes will at least help to lighten and de-puff them. If you try any of these, take a photo and hashtag #nwnmakeup to show us!