The importance of sleep for skin health

Getting your beauty sleep is not just an old wives tale. In fact, the siesta you get every night has a profound effect on the health of your skin.

When you sleep, your skin has the opportunity to repair, rehydrate, and heal. In order for this to occur, the quality of your sleep is crucial. There are 4 phases of sleep: One and two are when you’re in between being awake and being asleep. The skin magic happens in stages three and four, when REM (rapid eye movement) occurs. This can be a very hard stage for many to reach, especially those dealing with insomnia, small children or a poor bed time routine (we’ll get into this later).

Looking at this in a more whole-istic point of view, there’s been plenty of studies such as this one telling us that sleep deprivation results in an increase of the stress hormone, cortisol. Cortisol, when produced in excess causes in all kinds of problems, the primary ones being systemic inflammation and weakened immune responses in the body and the skin. Firdaus S. Dhabhar from Stanford University School of Medicine explains this in further detail here.

Sleep deprivation = increased cortisol = increased inflammation.

This will:

• Increase the severity of inflammatory or immune related skin conditions such as acne, eczema or psoriasis.
• Cause digestive issues, leading to nutritional deficiencies of nutrients necessary for skin health and prevention of pre-mature aging.
• Breakdown collagen and hyaluronic acid which is what gives the skin a youthful, bouncy appearance.
• Further hormonal imbalances, leading to acne.
• Reduce the skin’s ability to stay hydrated, making the skin appear lifeless, wrinkly and dull.
• Speed up the aging process because damaged cells are incapable of proper repair.
• Effect your mood and the way you look at yourself in the mirror. The power of positivity plays a massive role in healing skin conditions.
• Cause unstable blood sugar levels throughout the day, causing cravings, poor food choices and an increase in the hormones that cause excess oil production on the skin. Read this post to understand this a little bit better.

There you have it. Beauty sleep really IS required for skin health… but sometimes it’s not so easy.

Happy sleeping everyone!