Why youthful skin starts with better sleep
23-10-2013
While we haven’t found the fountain of youth just yet we do know a few tricks and tips that can help your skin stay more youthful looking for longer, and who doesn’t want that? Sleep is a fundamental part of your overall wellbeing and health so it really is not that surprising that it plays an important role in the condition of your skin. If you want youthful looking skin you need to sleep better, it is as simple as that.
The Fountain of Youth
Don’t fall for all the different skin care products that promise younger looking skin, the fountain of youth has not been found and those expensive products do virtually nothing. The real key to younger looking skin is sleep. Yes sleep.
Sleeping Beauty
The more we discover about sleep, the more we realise that it is a fundamental part of our overall wellbeing and health. Sleep plays a central role in our physical and mental health. It not only helps rejuvenate our body’s cells, it plays a part in our weight, in our memory retention and in so many more areas. The truth is that as we learn more about sleep, its range of critical functions expands. Modern experts are starting to see that sleep does more than simply make us feel refreshed in the morning, it is a foundational component of virtually every physiological and psychological function of the body and mind. No wonder it is also good for your skin then!
Sleep for Beauty
A recent study at University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio, poor sleepers were found to show increased signs of skin aging and slower recovery from a variety of environmental stressors like ultraviolet radiation. The study found that while poor sleepers had increased signs of skin aging including fine lines, uneven pigmentation and slackening of skin and reduced elasticity, people who slept well recovered more efficiently from stressors to the skin, such as sunburns.
While you sleep, your skin renews itself. New skin cells grow and replace older cells. The sleep period is a time when your skin is focused on repairing and restoring and rebalancing. It's also a time when all sorts of hormonal and metabolic changes happen in and the body, including your skin. A lack of sleep can disrupt those processes.
It’s As Easy As One, Two, ZZZZZ
Good sleep can help your skin, it really is that easy. Unless of course you have trouble sleeping, then it is not that easy. However, even the worst sleep can make changes that will help them to sleep better and therefore improve their skin. While there are a multitude of different options you could try there are some that are better than others, here they are:
1. Change your diet. Avoid fatty foods, alcohol and caffeine, eat and drink dairy products, almonds, bananas, cherries and herbal teas.
2. Make your sleep environment as dark and quiet as possible.
3. Follow a regular sleep schedule, go to bed at the same time every night and wake up around the same time every morning.
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