Mirren advocates sleep to maintain youthful looks

Dame Helen Mirren sleeps as much as she can to stay young.

The 64-year-old actress - who is known for her enviable, toned figure - maintains her youthful appearance by shunning celebrity parties and getting a good night's sleep.

She explained: "I sleep. When I'm working really hard, I don't party. I don't go to the bar after work. I don't go out to restaurants. I just go to bed. If I'm on a film, I even try to catch some sleep in my trailer at lunchtime. I really try to sleep as much as possible. It's very important and, as you get older, it becomes more so."

The screen legend also takes vitamin tablets, sticks to a healthy diet and occasionally exercises.

But Helen claims she looks after her body for health reasons rather than to look good.

She explained to Britain's Daily Mail newspaper: "I come and go about exercise. I do do it, but honestly, it's not particularly a beauty thing, it's just that as one gets older, one has to keep up one's energy levels, and if you want to do that, you can't stop exercising. But you know, we can't actually stay young, and it's ridiculous to pretend we can.

"The reality is that life goes on - tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock! I call it growing up and, to me, it doesn't make much difference whether I'm 63 and three quarters, or 64 and a half. You know? You just carry on, and hopefully you get more sensible as you get older, which is all that really interests me."