Is beauty sleep just a myth? Well, it seems not. When you’re well-rested, so is your body and so is your skin. As your Harley Street & Mayfair skin clinic, we want to inform you of how your lifestyle affects your skin’s health and appearance, and sleep plays a huge part in this. Your body does a lot of its recharging and repairing when you are asleep, so if you’re cutting into these valuable hours with film marathons or looking at screens then you’ll notice distinctly less fresh skin in the morning.
Skin, sleep and the stress hormone cortisol
Lowering your stress levels before sleep will not only give you a better night’s sleep but will also help your skin appear a little fresher the next day. This is because when you’re stressed, your adrenal glands release a hormone called cortisol, known as the stress hormone. Cortisol is known to affect the blood flow throughout the body and damage the collagen in your skin, accelerating the ageing process. Because cortisol will inhibit your ability to sleep well and enter REM and deep sleep, which is when your skin repairs itself, your complexion will appear dull in the morning. A piece of skin clinic advice is to keep away screens for an hour before bed or switch them onto a Night Shift mode if you can. The blue light in screens stimulates the part of your brain that keeps you awake, whereas the red light on Night Shift mode doesn’t.
Dark circles and tired eyes
The science behind developing dark circles and puffy eyes is very interesting. Lack of sleep causes your blood vessels to dilate under your eyes, creating darkened half-moon circles underneath your eyes. Making sure you get enough sleep helps your eyes to appear literally more awake as the day goes on, as they won’t be puffy or irritated or encircled by dark under-eye hollows.
Bedding and breakouts
Your bedding could actually be causing your skin to break out. This is because your pillowcases and even soft toys or comforters you hold to your face collect dead skin cells, oils, and dirt over time. When you sleep, you reintroduce your skin to these oils and skin cells every night until you wash your pillowcase again. This also accounts for sleeping on your back and side, because the oils and products from your hair can also transfer onto your pillowcase and therefore your skin. Our skin clinic tip is to wash your pillowcases regularly because this will keep the fabric that your skin comes into contact with clean and free of debris that it is already working to shed.
Visit your skin clinic
Skincare products specifically for nighttime use might be a good idea to investigate, as repair and renewal products could help transform your skin while you sleep. If you have questions about your skin health and would like to find out how you could better your skin’s appearance, then contact our Harley Street & Mayfair skin clinic today. Speak to a member of the L’Atelier Aesthetics team on 0207 637 3208 to book your initial skin consultation.
