Jennifer Aniston is famed for her fit physique, but the “Friends” superstar says she struggles with one critical component of a healthy lifestyle.
In an interview with Allure, published Friday the 55-year-old actress admitted she’s been having trouble sleeping for more than a decade.
“Sleep and I have a real hard relationship,” she stated. “I really want to love it and I am sure it wants to love me, but we have had a hard time, especially the last 10, 15 years.”
The actress stopped short of saying she struggled with insomnia — a condition that affects up to 30% of Americans, according to the National Institutes of Health.
However, she said her sleep was affected by the onslaught of information on her smartphone, which can keep her wired well into the wee hours.
“It’s just hard to shut the brain down, hard to tell the committee to stop talking,” she declared. “I’ve had to shut the news off. I’ve had to give myself boundaries with information. You know what I mean?”
“Our bodies, our brains are not designed to take in this much information,” “The Morning Show” star stated. “They’re just not. We used to have a television and a radio and that was it.”
“We would turn on the news at six, and that was all you got plus a newspaper in the morning,” the Golden Globe winner continued. “You could go live a glorious life where your cortisol levels weren’t through the roof, where your anxiety wouldn’t be out of control. It’s just too much. This is not normal.”
As for her wind-down routine, Aniston revealed she shuts off her phone and tries to be in bed with just her thoughts two hours before midnight.
“I stretch before bed. I’ve been really trying to work on my sleep hygiene, and I hate those words,” she explained to the outlet. “I can’t stand ‘sleep hygiene.’ I’ve been trying hard to put myself in bed during the week at 10 p.m., turn everything off and then just sit there and let the world come crashing in
However, the “Just Go With It” beauty says she tries not to beat herself up if rest doesn’t come quickly.
“Some days you’re great and on point, and some days you’re just not. I’m a big believer in trying not to be hard on yourself because the world is so mean right now and so aggressive and negative. So why would we do it to ourselves?”
Aniston also said she strives to have a healthy relationship with her body, saying: “We really love each other.”
“We’ve got to love our bodies. It’s doing the best it can. It’s been with us since the day we started, so we can’t be too hard on it,” she elaborated.
“Of course, we’re all going to grow older, but how can we thrive as we grow older?” the star pondered. “And that is about giving your body the attention that it deserves. For me personally, I loved my 30s, but my 20s were nothing. I was a nightmare. I didn’t understand working out until my 30s and 40s.”
