In today’s fast-paced society, there’s always another item to cross off the to-do list, one more deadline to hit, one more chore to get out of the way, one more child to put to bed, or one more email to respond to, (and toss in daylight savings/time changes, things go from bad to worse)! The tasks are endless and when we do finally get some time to slow down, we often spend it with friends and family, leaving a decent night’s sleep at the bottom of the list of priorities. But how does this lack of quality sleep affect our appearance and overall health?
The Effects of Skipping Out on a Good Night’s Sleep
Getting too little sleep can wreak havoc on nearly every aspect of our lives, from causing irritability and lack of concentration to derailing a diet with late night snacks, disrupting hormone levels, or causing permanent damage well below the skin’s surface. Ultimately, sleep is essential to most beauty goals. In other words, this beauty sleep… isn’t a myth!
Our bodies filtration systems clear out waste during sleep. A study by Dr. Nedegaard, suggested the brain clears toxins from your brain while you sleep. Similarly, skin performs a deep clean during sleep, helping to reverse damage caused by environmental elements, stress, and more. It has been proven that at night, skin restores its lipid barrier, which protects skin from external factors that may damage collagen and elastin stores in lower layers of the skin. At this time, the body also produces higher levels of human growth hormones (HGH), which spur cell renewal for smoother, healthier skin by the morning (pillow wrinkles aside). It’s worth noting as well, that over time, a lack of sleep leads to a buildup of cortisol, the stress hormone, which leads to increased collagen degradation and premature aging of the skin.
How to Protect Your Beauty Sleep
While there are certainly ways to fake a night of beauty sleep with makeup tricks or cucumber masks, the focus needs to be brought back to getting enough sleep to allow the skin and body to heal itself in the first place.
To those work-addicted warriors reading this, (particularly those in their 20s and 30s) – stop pushing sleep to the weekends! This habitual cycle of sleep deprivation will show over time and your appearance may falsely reflect a perceived inability to keep up the pace. In fact, some physicians note that following medical aesthetic treatments, patients have reported an increase in productivity at work. You look and feel more rested and become more efficient. In other words, keeping regular work hours that allow for a restful night of sleep may benefit your career over the long haul.
As for treating damage already done to otherwise healthy collagen levels, consider a serum (with hyaluronic or vitamin C) and/or night cream that will assist in collagen restoration paired with an anti-aging treatment plan for wrinkle reduction. These anti-aging treatments utilize advanced radio frequency technology to deliver heat below the skin’s surface, kick starting the skin’s natural collagen production cycle to soften and smooth out fine lines and wrinkles while restoring your skin’s youthful-looking glow. Consider it a shot of caffeine for collagen production 😉
To learn more about the benefits of anti-aging wrinkle-reduction treatments, feel free to drop us a note.
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