Sleep and Your Skin….
It’s no secret that lack of sleep can play havoc with your skin. A couple of late nights show, not just in dark undereye circles, but also your skin tone and clarity suffer too. Usually after a late night after one too many 🍸, ahem, we also tend to make poorer food choices as well. The crisps and chocolates we crave aren’t exactly pillars of healthcare, are they?
The Science of Sleep… What happens? Why Is Sleep So Important?
When we sleep our body gets a chance to reboot itself. Our brain carries out a self-cleaning, sweeping out amyloid beta and other waste. While sleeping our bodies also produce more melatonin- a powerful antioxidant. Antioxidants are our friends as they prevent our cells from oxidizing. What does that mean? Well, you know the Tin Man? He’s rusty because of the oxidation process….
When we sleep, we relax our bodies and the muscles in our faces get a chance to rest too. Our frowns dissolve, our mouths unclench- well, hopefully… Stress levels tend to be lower when we sleep. Lower stress markers such as cortisol mean we are in a less inflamed state. Less inflammation means less skin issues such as psoriasis, acne, and general redness and puffiness.
Soothers for Smoother Snoozers (listen… Yeats isn’t the only poet here)
As well as taking care of what we put into our bodies (our mindful eating blog post from last week does a deep dive here) we can also supplement with known anti-oxidants such as vitamin E, and Zinc (also a powerful anti-inflammatory) and my favourite ingredient, Reishi mushrooms, which all contribute to collagen production and skin maintenance. I put them into one beautiful blend in my fabü Skin Glow and while the results won’t be overnight, after just a 5 weeks you’ll really start to see and feel the difference in your skin, hair and nails!
Many of you have told me that my R&R supplement with Ashwagandha, plant botanicals, B vitamins and magnesium has helped you relax before bed. I’m delighted that you love its soothing qualities as much as I do!
Skincare At Night
Does it really matter? Erm… yes!
Are you the type of person to go to bed without taking off all your makeup? We’ve all been there….. However, it’s not good for your skin!
Think of all the dirt from pollution, dust, cooking oils and whatever else is floating around! You have to clean your face. And if you’re wearing makeup and SPF (yes- even in our cloudy little island we need to protect our skin from sun 🌞damage!) you will need to double cleanse….
What?
Double cleanse. It’s so important, I said it twice! No really- it just means taking off all the makeup first, and then cleansing again to prepare the skin for treatments. Sleeping means your skin has an opportunity to drink up all the serums, retinoids or moisturizers.
To Sleep Perchance to Dream….
Sleep might just be the most important healthcare pillar, not just for skincare, but also for our overall health. No matter what we do without bodies and minds, if we aren’t getting enough rest, our body will not function properly.
Ask any new parent about the early sleepless nights of a new-born…. Our brains cannot function at optimal levels without adequate rest. The next day we are in a fog.
Sleep deprivation increases our stress levels too both in a behavioural and cellular level. One of the key ingredients missing in modern hospitals is the constant interruption to patients while there- between nurses checking (which they need to) and machines beeping- and is thought to have a negative impact on recovery.
And dreams matter too… We need rest to be able to tackle tomorrow’s challenges, to create the vision of our dreams. I often wonder about those online gurus who say they only need 4 hours sleep! I’d be a basket case! An angry one too!
Sleep Hygiene & Counting Sheep 🐏
It’s important to cultivate good sleep habits. Bedtime rituals like the ones created for us as children- bathtime, pj’s, a story and then bed. Not only does the sequence matter, the signalling of the end of the working day is perhaps more important for our superconnected modern work from home (i.e. all the time… it’s 9:30pm at night on a Friday as I write this ….)
So- off you go- get those pj’s on- put the phone away- buy an old-fashioned alarm clock for the room and get your much needed ZZZZ’s!
Goodnight you Fabulous People!
Laura x
