Are You Getting Your Beauty Rest? How Lack of Sleep Can Affect Your Appearance

Health experts recommend that adults get anywhere from seven to nine hours of sleep a night. Unfortunately, counting that many sheep can often be an elusive, frustrating task. In fact, experts estimate that as many as 30 percent of Americans experience some form of insomnia, and 10 percent of those with insomnia experience some form of daytime problems as a result of lack of sleep.

However, lack of sleep can do more than just make you yawn during that late afternoon work meeting. It can also have a detrimental effect upon your facial appearance. Our staff at Jefferson Plastic Surgery has seen many prospective patients who are looking for a way to offset the effects of lack of sleep can have on their appearance. Here are some of the ways in which not getting enough rest can take its toll on your face.

Balancing Your Facial Skin

At night, your facial skin is working to renew itself for the next day. If you don’t get enough sleep, your skin’s pH levels can drop, causing it to become dehydrated. The end result is you will wake up in the morning with skin that looks dry, red, blotchy, or just simply dull. You may even find yourself more prone to breakouts if you aren’t getting enough sleep. This is why it is important to have a nighttime moisturizing routine using a product that is slightly acidic, which will help keep your facial skin in proper balance while you sleep.

Dark Circles

Sleep allows the body to regenerate cells, particularly skin cells. If you are staying up too late, the blood vessels in your face will dilate, particularly in the delicate skin underneath the eyes. This is why you will wake up in the morning with dark circles under the eyes.

A Nightcap Drink

Your body does most of its cellular regeneration at night during the REM stage of sleep, when you are in the deepest part of the sleep cycle. Alcohol is a known REM inhibitor, meaning that it will not only make it more difficult for you to achieve the REM stage of sleep, but it may also prevent you from staying in REM sleep. Studies have shown that as little as two alcoholic drinks consumed 90 minutes or less before going to bed will throw off your sleep cycle. You may end up with dark circles under the eyes, wrinkled skin on both the upper and lower lids, and a dull complexion.

Lack of Collagen

Collagen is a protein that the body produces. It fills out the skin over the skeletal framework. While you sleep, your body is producing more collagen (particularly around the face) to repair the wear and tear your face has undergone during the day. If you don’t get adequate sleep, your body has little time to produce new collagen. Over time, you may end up with wrinkles, fine lines, and sagging facial skin.

In today’s hectic world, it may be easy to think that you can get by with just a catnap or two. Unfortunately, the truth is that you do need to get adequate sleep at night in order to keep not only your spirits refreshed, but your facial appearance as well.