How Lack of Sleep Affects Your Skin

November 2018 | Reading time: 3 minutes

Experts recommend that adults should have at least 7 to 8 hours sleep a night. Often this is not as simple as it sounds! With the stresses of daily life, families, and work, more and more of us are getting less sleep. But does this affect our skin?

Unfortunately, the answer is yes. If you continuously do not have enough sleep, then this can have detrimental effects on your appearance. People take the condition of their skin for granted, but lack of sleep prevents your body from being healthy.

When we sleep, our body takes this as a chance to repair itself and generate new cells. The body removes dead cells and makes way for new cells to replace them. If this does not take place, then the skin appears dull. Interestingly, supermodel Jodie Kidd was one of thirty women who took part in a sleep study for Bensons for Beds in 2015. The participants were assessed after 8 hours of sleep, and again after five nights of 6 hours sleep. Results showed participants had significantly more lines and wrinkles, and a 75% increase in dark circles under their eyes. Most importantly, the researchers estimated that if the participants continued to have 6 hours of sleep per night, their skin would age prematurely, and even show discolouration. Read more about the study from this Telegraph article.

If you drink alcohol before you go to sleep, this prevents cell generation, no matter how much sleep you get. This is because cell regeneration occurs in a stage of sleep that involves rapid eye movement, known as REM. Alcohol stops REM from happening, meaning that your skin cannot repair. If you frequently drink at night, this could make your skin quickly appear sallow and feel dehydrated.

Crucially, sleep influences moisture levels in your skin. As a result of this, when you sleep, your skin ensures that it stays hydrated. When you do not get enough sleep, this lowers the pH levels in the skin in addition to causing dehydration. Normally, your skin is ever so slightly acidic, which is what makes it glow.

Overall, sleep is the time for your skin to detoxify, and renew. It also has numerous physical and mental health benefits, giving you the energy and motivation to go about your daily life.

Referring to the Telegraph article mentioned above, it is estimated that up to half of the population get less than the recommended 7 hours of sleep per night. The good news is that we can take action to change this!

Avoid looking at any artificial light or your phone for at least an hour before you go to bed. If you look at too much light, this decreases the amount of melatonin in the brain which makes you feel sleepy. As well as this, try and do a relaxing activity before you go to sleep, such as reading or even something as simple as colouring. You must let your body wind down so that you feel ready to sleep!

It is important that you do whatever you can to look after your skin. If you know you are not sleeping well, then make an effort to have an early night to give your body the chance to recover!

If you are interested in improving the quality and appearance of your skin, then take a look at our LED Light Therapy! This uses three types of LED light to reduce signs of ageing such as lines and wrinkles. As well as this, the treatment improves acne, redness and damage that has occurred.