Lack of Sleep and Your Skin

September 27, 2013

As an Esthetician, my face is a direct reflection of my work. Luckily, I have always had pretty good skin, but good skin or not, there are still many factors that can lead even the best looking skin to looking not so great. One of those factors is sleep, or lack thereof. Unfortunately for me, I’m a night owl. I say unfortunately because as a mom of three little boys and the wife of a construction worker (they start their days early!), my little morning birds have me up before the sun is in the sky, which always has me asking myself why I stayed up so late the night before. The mirror is always a harsh reminder of why it was a bad a idea as well.

That’s right, my skin is left to pay the price; rashy complexion, dark circles, puffy eyes, fine lines, etc. A lack of sleep can cut into the crucial restorative process that our skin goes through at night, such as collagen production, cell renewal, and lymph drainage (hence the puffy eyes) just to name a few. If your skin is cut short from this crucial process, it shows. When skin benefits from enough sleep, products & treatments work more effectively to provide better results.

On that note, while it’s extremely important to get a good nights sleep, it’s just as important to NOT SLEEP IN YOUR MAKEUP. If you fall asleep in your makeup, your skin will skip the restorative process as it is busy trying to cleanse itself of the makeup and debris that was left on its surface, and it can’t rejuvenate itself. That’s why I always say, “If it was a crime to not wash your face, in the morning it would be a little misdemeanor, but at night it would be a felony.” Your esthetician recommends products for you to use specifically during your night routine, such as retinols or peptides, for example. The reason for that is because they work synergistically with your skin’s nightly renewal process, giving you optimal results.

Missing a night here or there won’t effect your skin permanently. That’s a good thing, because trust me, we’ve all been there. However, skipping cleansing and not getting enough sleep at night habitually will effect your skin drastically, aging you prematurely. It is so extremely important, to the cellular level, literally, to cleanse your face, use your nightly products, and get a good night’s rest. After all, it’s not called “beauty sleep” for no reason!