Six beauty benefits you’ll get from a full night’s sleep

Beauty

Love a quick makeover – one that’s so easy it requires no effort at all? Discover the six beauty benefits you’ll get from a good night’s sleep.

There’s a very good reason that we refer to getting our ‘beauty sleep’. Because getting a good night’s kip does much more than re-energise us, boosting our mental and physical health and preparing us for the next day – it also improves our looks.

Making sure you get enough sleep is one of the best beauty treatments you can give your skin. To explain exactly why a proper rest is so important, London Premier Laser Clinics share six benefits you’ll get from a full night’s sleep.

1) Your skin will have more time to repair and regenerate

In the day, your skin works hard to protect itself from aggravators such as free radicals, UV rays and the grime and sweat of everyday life.

But when you sleep, your skin switches into recovery mode for repair and regeneration. And, as the regeneration process at night can be up to three times as faster than during the day, it’s important to aim for eight hours of sleep a night.

The sleep hormone melatonin also begins to rise before bedtime, which heightens the feeling of tiredness, and increases your skin’s chance to repair itself naturally at night.

2) Your skin will be more receptive to anti-ageing products

The nightly renewal process is when you will get the most benefits from your anti-ageing ingredients – so make sure you apply the right products before bed.

Before bedtime you should apply heavy-duty ingredients, such as retinols and glycholic acid, as these ingredients will absorb into your skin and do all the work for you overnight – as long as you get enough sleep.

You should only be applying retinols at night as in the day the sunlight can break down its natural ingredients and make you more sensitive to sun damage. So it’s best to protect your skin in the day with high factor sunscreen and repair with retinol at night.

3) You’ll have fewer wrinkles

The more you sleep, the fewer wrinkles you should have – in theory at least!

That’s because, while you sleep your body produces human growth hormones (hGH). And hGH stimulates the production of collagen, an important cell-repairing hormone.

Collagen promotes skin elasticity, and helps to prevent sagging and wrinkles. So getting a good night’s sleep can help hold back the years. Collagen is also beneficial for your hair and nails, and keeps your skin tone even and free from discolouration.

4) You’ll feel less stressed

The daily stresses of life can speed up ageing – and not getting a full night’s sleep won’t help. The relationship between cortisol (the stress hormone) and sleep is well known. So getting a full eight hours’ sleep will help keep your cortisol levels in check.

Cortisol is linked to inflammation, and if we’re under too much stress, our body’s ability to regulate inflammation is affected – leading to sullen looking skin and puffiness around the eyes.

5) You’ll protect your skin from breakouts

During the day, our skin is covered in moisturiser, makeup and daily sweat and grime – clogging your pores with irritants. So cleaning your skin thoroughly before bed and giving it eight hours to breathe will do it the world of good, and help prevent acne and breakouts.

6) You’ll give your skin a break from environmental toxins

At night, tucked up in a lovely clean bed, your skin is safe from environmental toxins. There’s no risk of UV damage, no smoking, no smog or temperature changes, and you aren’t (hopefully) wearing makeup or sweating.

All these daily toxins and irritants contribute to your skin looking wan and damaged, so a long sleep is a good chance for your skin to get a break, and repair from the world.

Struggle to sleep? Try these tips

If you rarely get eight hours sleep, try some of these tips:

Photo by Oleg Ivanov