How to de-puff your face in the morning

To de-puff your face in the morning, use cold for 30 seconds, then 5 minutes of light massage from the neck outward, then get upright and move. The massage runs in 5 steps: neck, jaw, cheeks, under the eyes, then the neck again.

Left alone, most morning puffiness settles within an hour or two of standing up. The routine is there for the mornings when you have to be somewhere before that.

Why is your face puffiest first thing?

Your face is puffiest first thing because fluid settled while you lay flat. Lymph is the fluid your body drains out of its tissues, and it has no pump behind it. It moves when your muscles squeeze and when gravity helps, and both go missing for 8 hours of sleep.

Fluid settles where tissue is loosest and skin is thinnest, so your eyelids fill first, then your cheeks and jaw. Sleeping face down or flat makes it worse, and the American Academy of Ophthalmology advises sleeping with your head slightly raised if under-eye bags bother you. What causes facial puffiness covers the rest, such as salt, alcohol and allergies.

What do you need before you start?

You need something cold, a little oil and a mirror you can stand at, and nothing costs money.

• Something cold. Cool tap water works, and a flannel run under the cold tap and wrung out is better because you can hold it in place.
• Slip. A few drops of facial oil or a rich moisturizer. Dry fingers on dry skin drag, and dragging irritates your skin.
• A mirror at standing height. Hunching over a sink undoes half of the effect.

Start on clean skin, add the oil, then begin, and put sunscreen on afterwards.

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What is the 5 minute sequence?

The sequence starts with 30 seconds of cold, then 5 steps of massage that take about 4 minutes. Keep your fingers flat and work both sides at once.

Cold comes first and takes 30 seconds: splash cool water over your face, or press a cold flannel over your eyes and upper cheeks. Cold narrows the small surface blood vessels, which takes some swelling down before you've touched anything.

Step 1, the neck, is the step people skip, and it makes the rest work. The fluid you're about to move needs somewhere to go, and Cleveland Clinic's self-massage guide starts at the chest and neck for the same reason. Use so little pressure that you move skin and not the muscle underneath.

Step 2, the jaw, is where most people press too hard, because the jaw feels solid. Lymph vessels sit just under the skin, so the useful pressure is about the weight of your fingers resting there. If you clench or grind, add a few small circles just in front of your ears, then sweep down the neck again.

Step 3, the cheeks, takes whole flat fingers, slowly, in one direction. Lift off at the ear and start again, and don't rub back and forth.

Step 4, under the eyes, takes your ring fingers, because they're your weakest and you'll naturally use less force. The skin here is the thinnest on your face, and it's where puffiness shows most, so it rewards restraint.

Step 5, the neck again, clears what's left, because everything you moved out of your face is now at the bottom of your neck. Finish with a few sweeps across the top of your chest toward each shoulder.

Then stand up, drink a glass of water and walk around. Walking to the kettle does more for morning puffiness than another 2 minutes of massage.

What is the 60 second version?

The 60 second version is cold, neck, jaw and neck, and it covers the mornings when 5 minutes doesn't exist.

1. Cold flannel over the eyes, 15 seconds.
2. Neck sweeps, 15 seconds.
3. Jaw sweeps from chin to ear and down the neck, 20 seconds.
4. Neck sweeps again, 10 seconds.

Skip the cheeks and the eyes. The jaw and neck give you the most visible change per second, and 4 steps done properly beat 8 done in a rush.

What mistakes make it do nothing?

Five mistakes account for most of the "it doesn't work" reports.

• Too much pressure. If your skin stretches or goes red, ease off by half. It should feel almost too gentle.
• No slip. Dry dragging is uncomfortable and makes people quit by day 3.
• The wrong direction. Always stroke toward the ears and then down the neck, because upward strokes on the cheek don't send fluid anywhere useful.
• Skipping the neck. Open it at the start and clear it at the end.
• Going too fast. 10 slow, light passes beat one firm one.

How long does the effect last?

The effect lasts a few hours and fades gradually. Your face tends to look its best from the end of the session to mid-morning, which covers most of the moments you'd care about.

Doing it daily doesn't build into a permanent change. It stops the bad mornings from running the whole day, and the routine becomes automatic. A 5 minute morning routine puts this sequence in order with the skincare steps around it.

We film every Nodi session with experts in a professional studio, on a real face at real speed, so you can follow the sequence half asleep. Get the app.