4 Facial-Release Exercises Before Sleep
- Nov 16
- 4 min read
Your evening routine is the moment where your face finally gets to let go — of tension, jaw clenching, stress, and all the small contractions you’ve been holding throughout the day.
Most of the puffiness, tightness, and “heavy face” sensation we feel comes from deep tension in a few key muscles: the masseter, the temporalis, the SCM, and even the tongue and jaw floor.
When you release these areas before sleep, everything shifts. Your face looks more defined, your jaw softens, your neck feels lighter, and your lymphatic flow works better overnight.
This is why these four facial-release exercises are part of your Glow Reset: they help your nighttime repair phase work at its best, supporting smoother skin, less puffiness, and a calmer mind.
Masseter Glide (1 min)
Instructions
Place your thumbs: under your jaw, right at the angle of the jawbone, just below your ears.
Place your index fingers: on the sides of your face, close to your ears, where your chewing muscles (masseter) are located.
Open your mouth: Keep your mouth slightly open to avoid activating the jaw. This ensures that the masseter stays relaxed and does not resist the pressure
Glide downward: Slowly glide your index fingers downward in a straight vertical line, staying close to the ears. Your thumbs simply support the jaw from underneath.
Repeat the glide a few times, applying deep and steady pressure as you move through the muscle tissue.
Key Notes
You can briefly clench your teeth to feel the masseter bulge under your fingers—this is the area you want to target.
Always keep the movement vertical and close to the ears, where the bulk of the masseter sits. Avoid gliding too far forward into the center of the cheeks, this reduces effectiveness.
This massage is not superficial—the movement should be very deep and slow. Imagine your fingers are melting into the tissue, not pushing through, but sinking gradually with steady, intentional pressure. This allows the deeper layers of the muscle to release from within, rather than resisting.
Feeling tenderness, tightness, or mild discomfort is normal. These sensations indicate areas of stored tension—use calm, deep breaths to stay connected as the tissue softens.
Temporalis Vibration Lift (30 sec)
Instructions
Locate the area: Place your fingertips on your temporal region, just above the ears, where the temporalis muscle fans out across the side of the head. Let your fingers sink firmly and deeply into the scalp.
Activate the vibration: Begin a strong, vertical vibrating motion with your fingertips, as if you were sending energy upward through the tissue. The movement should be firm, quick, and rhythmic — not sliding over the skin, but vibrating into the scalp.
Follow the muscle's shape: Extend the vibration movement across the full area: from just above the ears– up and slightly back toward the crown of the head, as if you were helping the skull rise and reset from a collapsed state.
Duration: Repeat the movement for about 30 seconds, covering the full temporalis region with strong, upward energy.
Key Notes
This exercise stimulates the temporalis muscle, which plays a central role in cranial posture, jaw dynamics, and midface support.
The deep, rhythmic vibration encourages fascial release, blood flow, and reactivation of dormant tension patterns in the scalp.
SCM Circle Massage (30 sec)
Instructions
Find the muscle: Place your fingertips on your sternocleidomastoid muscle (SCM) — the long muscle that runs from behind your ear to your collarbone.
Make small circles: Use your fingertips to make gentle, small circles along the muscle.The movement should be light and very slow — stay close to the surface.
Don’t go too deep: You're not pressing into the muscle, you're working in the fascia layer, just under the skin.
Feel the texture: You might notice some dense or rough spots. Stay there and keep circling gently.
Let it soften: After a few seconds, you may feel the tissue start to relax and become smoother. Keep breathing and stay soft with your touch.
Key Notes
This is not deep work. You're staying just below the skin, in the fascia.
If a spot feels tight or grainy, that’s where you stay, gently and with patience.
You may notice that these dense zones become smoother and softer after a few seconds of patient work. This is the fascia responding.
Keep your touch light but intentional — you’re not skimming the surface, but you’re also not pressing into the muscle belly.
Keep your breath calm. This helps the tissue let go more easily.
Tongue Out Exhale (30 sec)
Instructions
Inhale deeply: Take a deep breath in through your nose, allowing your belly to expand fully.
Extend the tongue: Holding the breath, open your mouth and let your jaw relax completely, while extending your tongue outward as far as it comfortably goes.
Exhale with force: With the tongue still out, breathe out hard through your mouth.
Flatten the chest: Let your chest drop and go flat quickly as you exhale — this encourages full diaphragmatic release.
Hold the position: Stay in this extended tongue posture for as long as it feels comfortable — ideally, until your lungs feel completely empty and you naturally reach the end of your exhale. Try to resist the urge to immediately inhale again; instead, allow yourself to pause for a few extra seconds after the breath is fully released.
Reset and repeat: Gently close your mouth, return to a neutral position, and repeat the flow.
Key Notes
This exercise supports the release of the masseter muscle (one of the main chewing muscles) by encouraging passive relaxation of the jaw during the tongue extension phase. It's especially helpful for those who clench their jaw or carry tension in the lower face.
Fully extending the tongue activates the deep front fascial line, supporting a downward release through the diaphragm and chest.
Letting the chest drop with a strong exhale encourages vagal tone and helps reset the nervous system into a more relaxed state.
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