While we certainly don’t recommend spending decades asleep, Sleeping Beauty may have known something about how sleep affects your skin. Turns out, sleeping is one of the best things you can do for your skin.
In fact, many problems you may experience with your skin over the years can be treated with something as simple as a good night’s rest. Here are a few ways that seven to nine hours of good rest a day can benefit the way you look.
- Fewer wrinkles on your face.
When you’re asleep, your skin focuses on repairing the damage it experiences throughout the day. This means making new collagen, which is the substance within the skin that keeps it from sagging or creasing. Collagen is the most important ingredient to keeping wrinkles at bay, and a good night’s sleep is the best way to keep up your body’s collagen production. More sleep means more collagen, which means few wrinkles.
- Brighter looking eyes.
Anytime you’ve stayed up later than normal you’ve most likely seen two signs: puffy eyes and dark circles. Puffy eyes can be combated with more sleep, an elevated pillow, and plenty of water during the day. Dark circles, however, are a bit trickier to deal with. These are influenced by both genetics and a lack of sleep. Blood pools under the eye when a lack of sleep has kept it from properly flowing to where it needs to go, and it shows under the eye where the skin is thin. And for those who are predisposed to dark circles, getting little sleep only makes the problem even more visible. So, the more sleep you get, the brighter and less tired your eyes will appear when they have the right amount of time to repair themselves.
- A glowing complexion from head to toe.
After a good night’s rest, you may have noticed how your skin “glows” more. This happens when blood gets properly circulated during your sleep. This is caused when the parasympathetic system of your nervous system shifts the blood flow to focus on nourishing your skin during sleep. When you’re awake, the sympathetic nervous system directs most blood flow toward the core of your body. This is why a lack of sleep can make your skin appear dull or gray instead of bright and glowing.
- Getting hormones under control.
Unfortunately, our hormones don’t magically get under control when we go from being a teenager to an adult. Instead, they continue to fluctuate depending on everything from your environment, to your age, and, yes, your sleep. When your body doesn’t receive enough sleep, it begins releasing stress hormones. This wreaks havoc on your skin, causing it to break out or inflame conditions like rosacea, psoriasis, and eczema.
By allowing yourself to get at least seven to nine hours of sleep a night, you’re doing it a huge favor. Aside from just the skin, sleep helps every part of your body function better because sleep is when your body gets to do much-needed maintenance on itself. So, take a note from Sleeping Beauty: Get enough shut-eye.
Dermatology Associates offers a full spectrum of leading-edge medical, surgical, and cosmetic dermatology services from offices in Savannah and Vidalia.
