Do you want to know the best secret for healthy and young skin? You guessed – s l e e p !
Sleep, health, and beauty are connected. Deeply. What you do and don’t do, before, during, and after your sleep, will make a real difference in how your body renews itself and how you look. What we call ‘Beauty Sleep’ is truly a simple recipe for good health and skin.
Here are few key points to understand why sleep is indeed a health and beauty elixir:
1. let your body repair itself
Growth Hormones do their job at night, while we sleep. And they repair tissues, skin included. So the more you sleep the better skin cell production, collagen, and elastin synthesis will happen. Broken sleep, especially if you don’t get into deep sleep, inhibits Growth Hormones.
2. let your body protect itself
It’s not a myth that if you are sleep deprived you get sick more often. Lack of sleep decreases the protection of our immune system and long-term sleep deprivation could have more serious effects, such as long-term inflammation. And we need our immune system to maintain a healthy skin barrier, not just for acne prone skin but all skin types.
3. let your body de-stress itself
Stress wears our bodies down. The culprits are the so-called ‘stress chemicals’ (Adrenaline, Norepinephrine, and Cortisol) when they are released in excess into our bodies. In particular, Cortisol plays a role in collagen loss. Genetic studies have also demonstrated connections between stress and deterioration on the cellular level as well (oxidation, glycation, and diminishing telomeres – AKA aging).
4. let your body fight oxidation and UV damage
The less you sleep the less Melatonin you produce. And Melatonin is the hormone responsible also for controlling excessive oxidation (AKA formation of free radicals) and inflammation. Excessive UV exposure accelerates oxidations, which is slowed by Melatonin and of course sleep. So sleep off your day in the sun and look radiant the following day!
5. let your body detox itself
The flushing system of the body, the Lymphatic system, is activated by a well-rested body. If you don’t have enough sleep, you may experience heavy legs, bloating and under eye bags.
6. let your body oxygenate more
When you don’t get enough sleep, the blood in your body doesn’t flow efficiently, which normally results in a lack of oxygen in the blood itself. Cortisol levels increase and this triggers inflammation, which breaks down the proteins in the skin that keep it radiant and elastic. And lack of oxygen increases the risk of pigmentation.
Sweet Dreams
