9 things you don’t realise are happening to your skin while you sleep
Beauty sleep is real. We got dermatologists to say exactly what’s going on with your skin while you snooze, and how you can use it to get your best complexion ever.
9 things you don’t realise are happening to your skin while you sleep
1. Your skin cells are regenerating
We all have a good idea of how sleep affects the body, but few of us know that skin cells go into makeover mode while we snooze. Several studies suggest that the magic happens between 11 and midnight. That’s when cell mitosis – cell division that renews and repairs skin – is at its peak, whether you’re asleep or not. This is when cells need nutrients the most, and when their anti-aging benefits have maximum impact. Your skin is more receptive to certain products. During renewal mode is when you’ll get maximum impact from your anti-aging ingredients – they’re the building blocks your skin needs for all the heaving lifting its doing. Put the heavy hitters on at night, like retinol. Applying these skin care products in the p.m. will help you get gorgeous overnight. Another reason to apply retinols at night is that sunlight can break down its active ingredients, causing irritation, and make you more sensitive to sun damage. To minimize the risk of irritation, suggests alternating retinol and always make sure you apply sunscreen in the morning.
2. Your skin loses moisture
Skin sebum excretion peaks at midday, and there is less sebum (oil) production at night. Overnight, when you don’t have a protective layer of natural oils on your skin, you lose more water. Losing water from the skin is called trans epidermal water loss, and it happens toward the end of the day and into the night. Its important to replenish the water loss with moisturizers overnight. These are dermatologists’ golden rules for using moisturizer.
3. Your skin temperature changes
When you sleep, your skin becomes slightly hotter and slightly more acidic. Those factors contribute to slightly drier skin. That’s why dermatologists often recommend putting on a heavier cream at night, but it depends on your skin type.
4. You’re giving skin a break from stress
When you get quality sleep, you’re not facing the things that cause cortisol (the stress hormone) levels to surge during the day. That also means that is you short yourself sleep this week, it’s going to show up on your face. It’s important to respect the sleep-beauty connection. Not sleeping increases your cortisol levels and puts your skin in a pro-inflammatory state. Poor sleep will cause your skin look sullen, and you may experience puffiness around the eyes if you’re retaining water. If you’re not sleeping well, these are the secrets to better sleep that doctors want you to know.
5. You can protect yourself from breakouts
Stress can mess with a protective outer layer of skin that keeps moisture in and bad stuff like bacteria out. If you’re under a lot of stress, it can cause inflammation, which can lead to get acne. That’s the association between constant stress and the reaction of your skin.
So, when you're in a calm resting state and sleeping, your body isn't experiencing those inflammatory fluctuations that may lead to breakouts. Here are other sneaky reasons you're having and acne breakout.
6. You're giving your skin an environmental break
There's a reason you don't have to wear sunscreen after dark. At night, there's no UV damage, no environmental stresses, pollutions, no cigarette smoke, no big changes in temperature, and you're not wearing makeup. All these things happening at night mean your skin has more time to rest and rejuvenate. During the day, it's essential to wear a good quality sunscreen to minimize environmental damage.
7. There's no sunlight to degrade your sun-spot creams
Whether you're applying bleaching creams (hydroquinone) alone or with retinoids (tretinoin) to fade dark spots or brown spots on the skin, make sure you’re doing that before you go to. During the day, you’re in the sun, UV light causes an increase in melanin production, which results in pigment changes and darker colour, counteracting what the products are designed to do.
8. You could cause creases on your face
If you sleep on your side, that is. Sleep position is important. Sleep on your back to the best of your ability to avoid getting creases on one side of your face. Make sure your head is elevated too so excess fluid has a chance to drain, and you don’t wake up looking puffy.