Your mother knew what scientists are just learning – a good night’s sleep of eight hours helps your skin.  A rested body keeps the immune system strong, and allows the skin to repair itself.

Not getting enough sleep affects your skin:

•    Increases inflammation, which can cause acne flares.
•    Increases insulin resistance, which can worsen diabetes as well as acne.
•    Can lead to obesity, since sleep affects hormones that control glucose metabolism and appetite.  Lack of sleep leads to cravings for fatty foods and carbohydrates.
•    Increases stress since a sleep deficit puts the body in a state of high alert, increasing the output stress hormones and driving up blood pressure.  This also affects the immune system.
•    Excess of stress hormones caused by the lack of sleep can slow collagen production in the skin.
•    may alter the regulation of blood vessel tone and thus contribute to puffiness or bags under the eyes.

A good night’s sleep

•    avoids eye puffiness
•    releases growth hormone, which helps repair skin and keep our skin stay young
•    releases melatonin, which helps skin, as well as the immune system
•    Skin regeneration is faster during the night, than during the day.  Sleep allows our body to repair itself, and that means our skin as well.

Make the most of your sleep time by giving yourself a beauty treatment while you sleep.  Use those eight hours and use skin care products especially designed for overnight.

Remember: Sleep allows skin care products to work better. Many anti-aging ingredients stay active longer if they are not exposed to sunlight.  Retinol, which speed cell turnover, deteriorates faster and loses its effectiveness when exposed to UV light.  Topical Vitamins C and E also break down faster when exposed to sunlight.  And since there is no sunlight at night, you get more bang for your anti-aging buck when you apply night creams before you go to sleep.  The best thing to do is use a night cream that contains numerous anti-aging ingredients and antioxidants all in one, like the kaplanMD Replenishing Night Cream. This product not only contains Retinol, Soy, Grapeseed Extract, and Matrixyl 3000 (a fantastic anti-aging peptide), but Vitamins A, C and E as well.

Keep in mind that sleep gives your skin the time it needs to repair the daily damage of pollution, UV rays, and other environmental damage.   These cause thinning of the skin, dehydration, lines, wrinkles and pigmentation. Rest and relaxation allows your body time to heal itself, so our skin, which is our body’s largest organ, has the time to repair itself, and reverse this damage.  Using an antioxidant-rich night cream boosts this repair process. If the skin is given these repairative nutrients at night, it can better protect itself the following day.

Nighttime also gives you eight uninterrupted hours to hydrate skin with formulations that don’t mix well with makeup or that might give you a shine you would avoid during the day. These superhydrators not only attract moisture to the skin, but also prevent moisture from evaporating from your skin. Active ingredients penetrate the skin better when you’re sleeping, because they have complete access to your skin.  While you are sleeping, these active ingredients are the only thing on your skin.  There is  no interference from sun, pollution, or makeup.  Eye creams that smooth and reduce puffy eyelids also work better at night, when make-up can’t interfere with their absorption.

Now that you know the amount of sleep you get is important, let’s talk about how you sleep

1.  Sleep flat on your back:  Do you wake up, and see wrinkles on your face from your bed or sheets?  When you were younger, you could wash your face, and as the circulation flowed, the creases disappeared.  Have you noticed that they are not going away as fast, now that you are getting older?  Natural hormonal progression, in both men and women, starting in our twenties, reduces the amount of collagen, elastic tissue and hayaluronic acid in our skin.  This means that the skin is thinner and less elastic, and doesn’t bounce back like it used to.  Lying flat on your face creates creases that worsen over time.

Think about how you sleep.  Sleeping on your side forms chest, cleavage and cheek creases.  Sleeping on your stomach, and smushing your face into a pillow can cause a furrowed brow, and deep face creases as well.  Try sleeping on your back.  It will allow your face to fall back, and help reverse the effects of gravity that have worked all day to pull your face down.

2.   Stay hydrated: Drink plenty of water.  Also, to avoid moisture loss from the skin while sleeping, use a humidifier.  This is especially important in winter, when dry heating sucks all the moisture out of the air

3.  Use a thicker moisturizer after bathing: Seal in the moisture that your skin has absorbed after bathing.  You are going to bed, not putting on an expensive silk blouse.  Use a body and face cream that is rich and moisturizing, even if it is one that you would not feel comfortable using during the day.