Getting a good night’s rest is something we do to wake up feeling energized, refreshed, and ready to start a new day. As adult humans, we need about 7 – 8 hours of beauty sleep per night to keep our bodies going and moving. Surprisingly though, it turns out that sleep is not just something that leaves us with more energy, it actually makes us prettier too. We’ve all heard it from our friends who ask if we’ve gotten enough rest. They tell us that we look tired!
Getting enough rest allows for a full-body reset. The level of our cortisol, the stress hormone, goes down and our sleep hormone, melatonin, goes up. This is that repair mode coming through for our body and bonus, for our biggest organ, our skin! No products, just some good old-fashioned rest! For our continuation of Sleep Awareness Week coverage, we decided to outline the many ways that sleep can make us look and feel more beautiful. Keep reading for more and check out the rest of our Sleep Awareness Week content!
The Benefits of Beauty Sleep
1) Increasing the potency of your beauty products
What happens to your skin at night is that the production of collagen goes up. This keeps your skin smooth and firm. During the day, you should be protecting your skin from stress, the sun, and the environment. At night, it’s good to pack on those powerful products (let them dry first!) and make sure you are reaping the benefits of really good ingredients. This is when the work really starts to get you that gorgeous skin.
2) Healthier hair
What beauty sleep can do for your hair is incredible. Fuller, more beautiful hair is possible with more sleep due to the protein synthesis that happens during the night, which impacts your hormones and has an effect on hair growth and appearance, according to Good Housekeeping. Waking up with luscious, gorgeous hair? We’ll take it!
3) More youthful-looking skin
At night, new skin cells grow faster and more rapidly. Making sure you cleanse your skin thoroughly and apply powerful products is the key to waking up with healthier and younger-looking skin. We recommend a great moisturizer and powerful retinol that helps with skin cell turnover. Get all of those gorgeous anti-aging benefits in a one-two punch.
4) Fewer wrinkles
With that skin cell turnover and collagen increasing rapidly at night, your skin is actually less wrinkly. Part of the repair process is to plump up the skin, which fills it in, making it less likely to wrinkle. Getting anything under that seven hours can have effects on your skin’s appearance, including making it appear drier. It also prevents sagging, according to WebMD. Puffiness is not always your enemy, people! A full-body reset for your skin is always welcome to us.
