How Does Sleep Affect Your Beauty?

Beauty sleep is called that for a reason. It’s the time when your skin is recovering from all the stress and abuse it had to endure during the day. However, you need to get a full 8 hours of it to really experience its benefits. 

 

Here are some ways a lack of sleep can harm your skin :

 

• Dark circles/ eye bags. Lack of sleep causes your skin to look dull and pale. Plus it causes your blood vessels to dilate. So the dark tissues and blood vessels beneath your skin become more visible. It can also cause fluid to gather beneath your eyes, creating eye bags and making them appear puffy. The dark shadows may also be the shadows cast by your puffy eyelids.

 

• Dull skin. Sleep is brain, body and skin food. During sleep, your body removes 60% more toxins. It also gets rid of dead blood cells and dead brain cells and clears the pathways so that new cells can replace the old ones. All this makes you feel more refreshed when you wake up and gives your skin that “I woke up like this” glow. 

• Reduces moisture. Not getting enough sleep reduces the moisture levels in your skin. This lowers your complexion’s ph levels which causes an imbalance and leads to skin looking dehydrated and less supple. This lack of moisture can also lead to redness and cause skin to look uneven. In fact, it quite commonly triggers breakouts.

 

• Makes you look older. Stress hormones are called cortisol. If found  in excess amounts, it can break down skin collagen, the protein that keeps skin smooth radiant and elastic. This leads to signs of aging, making your skin thinner and less firm. Thinner skin looks less smooth and makes wrinkles more obvious.  

 

• Makes skin conditions worse. If you’re skin is less than perfect due to existing skin conditions like psoriasis or eczema and other skin inflammations, then lack of sleep will surely aggravate it. Aside from diet, exercise, and treatments for the skin condition, enough sleep is crucial  because if you don’t get enough zzzz’s it increases your anxiety levels and makes your skin issues worse. 

 

Beauty sleep is a natural and inexpensive way of improving your looks. So make sure you get enough of it every night. Sleep tight!