These days, everyone has a busy life. Whether it’s working long hours, being a parent, trying to squeeze in a social life or juggling trying to run your own business, we all have plenty of things to keep our days and nights occupied.
There doesn’t ever seem to be enough hours in the day to complete our to-do lists, regardless of what is on them. And if something has to suffer, sleep tends to be it. Late nights, waking up extra early, or even those sleepless nights worrying about everything we have to do.
But have you considered the importance of the hours in the night? What are your current thoughts on sleep? What impact does it have on you, internally and externally?
If our sleep suffers, we start to notice the negative effects to our energy levels and overall mood, but worst of all, sleep deprivation shows immediately on our skin. When we don’t get enough shut eye, those tell-tale signs of tiredness creep up under our eyes, across our skin’s texture and tone, and not to mention causing problems like dull skin and breakouts.
It’s not called ‘beauty sleep’ for nothing! Let’s look at why sleep is so important for our skin:
1. Your skin is receptive to certain products when you sleep
When we sleep, our bodies go into ‘renewal mode’, which is when you’ll get maximum impact from the ingredients you put on your skin. Whatever your put onto your skin before you go to sleep, they will work hard through the night, which is why it’s advised to use the anti-aging products at night, so they work harder.
Applying your powerful skin care products in the p.m. will help your skin look it’s best in the morning, as they work deep overnight. Some people chose to use retinoids and AHA’s on their skin through the night, as sunlight can break down their active ingredients, causing irritation and sun sensitivity.
The same applies for our skin on our bodies, and not just our face. By smothering your body with rich, nourishing body lotions products before going to bed, these ensure any dry areas get major TLC whilst you sleep. When using products with intensely hydrating properties massaged in thoroughly, you’ll be waking up with renewed, soft and smooth skin.
The Brightening and Firming Body Oil, with Argan, Co Q10 and Fruit Extracts is a luxurious body oil infused with powerful antioxidants, natural botanicals and high performing active ingredients. It works deep to transform dull, dry skin all over your body, leaving it softer, brighter and glowing with health. Smother this on at night, and wake up with fresh, smooth, radiant skin.
2. Regular sleep hours promote younger looking skin
Sleep is critically important for overall good health, and that applies to resetting our brains and our bodies, boosting our immune system, heart and circulatory system, and renewing our skin. Whne we don’t clock up enough hours, the first visible signs will be lacklustre skin and visible signs of premature ageing, before anything else starts to show.
It has also been researched that those who have around 7-8 hours sleep a night will show slower skin aging than those who suffer.
3. Your skin repairs itself best during sleep
We all have a natural internal 24-hour body clock, which is controlled by light, regulated sleep, and our own habits we have developed over the years. However, our skin cells have their very own clocks, in which they schedule DNA and cell repairs for evening times, after our peak UV exposure.
Whilst experts agree the ideal quantity of sleep is between 7 – 9 hours for an adult, it’s important that the quality of sleep is high too. A person who may sleep for 7-9 hours but is constantly woken throughout the night will have a much more broken pattern than someone who has a solid 8 hours sleep.
Remember than when your body is in a deep sleep mode, it is only then that your skin cells start working to renew and repair themselves. Therefore, if you cut, burn or scar yourself, it’s always best to load on the skin healing ingredients and aim for a long, restful sleep (natural aloe vera is incredible for this).
4. Sleeping well will help your diet plans
Believe it or not, but how well you sleep has a detrimental part to play in the foods we consume during the day. Sleep plays an important role in regulating our appetite, which it does through alterations in our hormone levels. If we haven’t had much sleep, the tiredness we feel can drive us to reach for sugary, rich food, in a bid to perk up our moods and energy levels.
When we eat high amounts of sugar, the sugar in our blood levels binds to our skin proteins producing higher levels of glycation, which damages our natural collagen, making it less elastic. It also can encourage break outs for those who are acne prone, and alter our water balance, making the skin grey with dark eye circles.
In summary, it can’t be denied that getting a good solid sleep can help to lower your skins age. By aiming for around 7-9 hours and utilising a quality, effective skincare regime while you sleep, you’ll be helping your skin with better recovery after UV light exposure, with faster renewal and repair cycles.
As mentioned above, it is also important in regulating your appetite and stabilising hormone levels which also have an overall effect on our skin. Therefore, overall, a continued lack of sleep can make us look and feel much less healthy.
So let’s start to prioritise sleep, and watch as our face and bodies thank us for it. Sweet dreams…
