It’s a new year, and time for new habits. Whether you make, follow, or keep new year’s resolutions ;), there is something very simple you can do to improve your skin and health. SLEEP!
Do you get enough sleep? Most of us could probably use some more. Sleep is one of the most under-rated skincare strategies, which is why I want to put it in the spotlight.
I think most of us understand intuitively that sleep is good for the body. Well, it’s actually essential. Without it, we can’t function optimally. But what you may not know is the connection between Sleep and Skin.
There’s a good reason why sleep is called Beauty Sleep. It actually does have a direct, positive impact on the quality of your skin. When you don’t sleep enough, it really shows on your skin. (Hello dark circles!)
The Skin Clock
Did you know that skin follows a regular schedule? Your body has an internal clock that guides many body functions, especially your sleep cycle. Physical and mental changes that occur as a result of this clock are commonly referred to as Circadian Rhythms.
Circadian (24 hour) rhythms also affect the skin. They specifically influence when certain skin activities happen.
Three very important skin activities happen at night:
1. DNA Repair
2. Cellular Energy Production
3. Cellular Detox
By the end of the day, your energy reserves are depleted, you’ve accumulated damage throughout the day (from UV, pollution, other ecotoxicants, and metabolic activities), and you’ve accumulated waste.
Night time is when the cells get repaired, energy is replenished, and the detox enzymes go to work. These repair activities happen during the day too, but they peak at night when there is increased blood flow to the skin. (The increased blood flow is due to the nervous system switching from the sympathetic system to the parasympathetic system at night.)
Getting enough sleep is important because you need this time to repair your skin.
It’s also important to get your sleep on a regular schedule. Your internal body clock follows a roughly 24-hour cycle. So if you go to bed at very different times every night, it throws off your clock.
The Nasty Effects of Cortisol on Skin
Sleep is also a time when cortisol levels are lowered.
Cortisol is a hormone that is released in times of stress.
Cortisol triggers all sorts of problems for skin. Shall I go over them for you?
Inflammation is a big one. Cellular inflammation damages DNA, proteins, and cell membranes. When we think of inflammation, we typically think of acute inflammation, the kind that is obvious to the eye. Like red skin.
But inflammation can exist at a cellular level. This is the kind you can’t see. In fact, this low-level inflammation, called chronic inflammation, afflicts all of us, every day. No one is immune to it. This chronic inflammation is one of the main reasons that we age, even if we take really good care of ourselves.
Stress also damages certain proteins that give skin cells their shape. And guess what happens when you have deformed proteins? Your skin barrier gets weaker. So your skin becomes more dry and sensitive.
Stress also reduces the enzymes that are responsible for detoxifying cells. Those cells then become more vulnerable to free radicals.
Oh, and stress also reduces the production of Glycosaminoglycans (GAG’s), the molecules responsible for plumping skin and keeping it moist.
And if that’s not bad enough, stress increases the MMP enzyme hyaluronidase, which destroy the GAG’s. So not only is stress reducing how much GAGs you produce, it’s destroying what you already have.
The net result of stress is a full frontal attack on skin cells and their components. Your skin loses its thickness and plumpness.
And it aggravates every skin problem. So if your problem is acne, stress makes it worse. (It’s why you break out more in times of stress.) If you have sensitive skin, stress makes it worse.
Sleeping Tips
A good night of sleep may be a luxury to you. Perhaps the demands of your life just don’t give you time to sleep more. Perhaps you don’t sleep well at night.
It’s never easy making a change. So I suggest you make a tiny change, which is more achievable. Rather than try to attempt to add 1, 2, or 3 hours of sleep daily, make a smaller increase. Say 15 minutes. Force yourself to go to bed 15 minutes earlier.
Whether you actually sleep 15 minutes longer is a different story. The ideal amount of sleep time falls into specific intervals. There is a whole field of sleep science if you are interested in learning more.
The point of picking a small number to start with is to develop a habit of going to bed sooner so you can get more overall sleep.
Tiny changes are more realistic and do-able. These tiny changes add up over time.
And of course there’s the nap. This is another great way to get more rest.
The Power of A Nap
Why does this woman look happy? Because she just had a nap 🙂
The Power Nap. Maybe you’ve heard the term. It’s just as good for skin as it is for reviving the mind and body.
I love naps. For me, they’re extremely refreshing. I function so much better after a short nap in the late afternoon.
The short nap may be impractical if you’re working and can’t take time for it. But if you’re not in a work environment, making time for it is worthwhile. Even if you can’t get to a bed during the day, just closing your eyes while sitting down is beneficial.
The idea is to put your body in a state of rest, so that it’s not doing anything. It’s not moving around, and it’s not thinking.
Over time, I have learned how to empty my head. Once you learn to empty your head your thoughts, you can fall asleep pretty fast! Meditation is a great way to learn how to do this.
The key is not to take naps that are too long, which can make you groggy. That sense of grogginess is due to the intervals in your sleep cycle being interrupted.
I take naps that are roughly 25-30 minutes long, which research shows is the ideal length of time for a nap. The precise number differs for each person.
You will notice that if you exceed your ideal time period, you will feel not as refreshed. I’ve experimented with different times. And when I sleep beyond 25-30 minutes, say a mere 10 minutes longer (for a total nap time of 40 min), I feel more tired than when I started.
The next time you have an important event in the evening to attend, and you want to look your best, try to fit in a short nap that afternoon. You will not only look better, but you will enjoy your time more!
hi from TURKEY:) ı read your lovely writings..ı wanna ask something,what do you think about melatonin creams????? ı discover life-co melatonin cream ….dou youever heard that?… ı wanna use at hospital especially in nights..ı could sleep one or two hour while ı was working at hospital…ı want to hear your thoughts about this..thank you for your answer.
Hello, nice to hear from you and thank you! 🙂 I am not familiar with life-flo melatonin cream. I have personally not used any topical melatonin creams or taken it as a supplement. Melatonin is usually available as a supplement here in the U.S. Are you looking for a topical option instead of an oral option?
Your question interested me. So I did a quick search of the skin’s ability to absorb melatonin. Here’s a clinical study on NIH’s Pubmed that looks at percutaneous absorption. The study showed that melatonin (lipophilic) was able to penetrate skin. So a topical cream could in theory help.
I think the key factor for efficacy is the nature of the melatonin in the cream’s formulation. It would need to be formulated with the right delivery vehicle in order to penetrate the lipophilic layers of the skin.
Thank you for your answer:)ı read that article thnx a lot:) pub-med love