Sam
The quick answer? Yes, Sleep is good for your skin!
Your skin follows a natural 24 hour cycle; working hard to protect during the day and repairing at night. As well as leaving us restless and often narky, a lack of sleep can disrupt skins overnight recovery, resulting in dull and tired skin and increased breakouts.
“Your night time skincare routine is more important than your morning routine...”
THE IMPORTANCE OF SLEEP
Skin is our largest organ, and basically it has one job - a barrier to protect the body from external toxins, (which is quite important in the scheme of things) so it makes sense that if we're not getting enough, good quality sleep, our skin is going to react and well, kick off a bit.
And if you're suffering with lack of sleep, its not just you - it's a global problem. Millions of people every day are looking for sleep remedies online. 47% of British adults say they ‘would try anything’ to improve their sleep quality and an estimated 10 million people in the United States remaining undiagnosed for insomnia.
SLEEP IS RESTORATIVE
During the run down to sleep and overnight, the skin’s repair mechanism kicks in – stem cells reproduce in large quantities which leads to the creation of new skin cells. Our skin’s barrier also becomes more permeable and oil production is at its lowest, meaning that it can absorb nutrients more effectively to have more of an impact. This is why your PM routine is actually more important that your AM routine.
The Sleep Foundation recommends adults sleep at least seven to nine hours each night.
During sleep, your body releases growth hormones, which help with cell and tissue repair, to restore your skin.
Sleep also ensures the production of cytokines, which are molecules that help the immune system fight infections, including ones that affect the skin
LACK OF SLEEP CAN CAUSE STRESS AND LEAD TO BREAKOUTS
When we sleep, our cells regenerate, renew and get rid of toxins and we all know, we get dark circles and less glowy skin, but it affects our immune system too - which makes skin more vulnerable to bacteria and in turn, breakouts.
Waking up whilst still tired is also strongly associated with acne and breakouts. So as ever, its quality over quantity!
Stress can be a trigger for breakouts and acne. When you’re stressed, your body produces cortisol and inflammatory proteins cortisol and inflammatory proteins and sleep deprivation can also significantly raise cortisol levels. This cortisol increase can negatively impact your immune system’s fighting power, which can lead to increased breakouts and the body feeling more tired. Quite frankly, it’s a horrible circle.
The irony is, acne itself can induce stress and anxiety and in turn make sleeping difficult - which we know, is not at all helpful.
Increased sleep quality and duration can help ease breakouts . However, we know that getting more sleep can feel like an up hill battle, so here are a few steps to getting you to a better sleep routine.
5 TIPS FOR BETTER SLEEP
Create a sleep sanctuary
If you can, make your sleep environment is comfortable, quiet and stress free, perhaps try making it cool and dark. Its all about having minimal distractions, to get your brain engaged with the possibility of having a restful nights sleep.
Set a time for bed and stick to it
Give yourself an extra 15 minutes before hand so you can take some time to go through your skincare routine. After a couple of weeks, this consistent approach will feel really natural and importantly, will send the right signals to your brain that its time for sleep.
Get yourself a good book
Reading, meditation or a warm bath are great techniques to helping on the sleep journey (our Founder swears by reading). We get it, its hard switching off, so find something that relaxing and also gives you the excuse to put down your phone!
Leave your phone in a different room
We all know how important it is to keep devices away at night to avoid blue light disrupting your circadian rhythm - this can cause difficulty falling asleep or even staying asleep. Don’t worry, It’s something we struggle with too so we've started leaving our phones downstairs as a test, and it works!
Try to limit your food before bed
Processing a big meal will only keep you awake. Drinks can also have a negative impact on sleep too - caffeine or high energy / sugar drinks will keep you awake longer and alcohol has a negative impact on hormones that keep you circadian rhythms balanced so you might drop off to sleep but you may find your sleep fitful and restless, resulting in waking up feeling a bit rough!
BASIC NIGHT SKIN CARE ROUTINES
So now you know why sleep is important to your skin (and in general) and how you can set better routines for sleep, but if breakouts are causing you stress, then having the right night-time skincare support in place could be the key.
A good night time routine can have a great effect on your skin. As you sleep you skin barrier is resting, repairing and rebalancing so if its clean and nourished, it will improve the quality of that process and you will see improvements in your skin health really quickly.
This is a non-negotiable step if you have been wearing make-up and / or SPF, even if your drunk or tired. By incorporating a good PM regime, your skin will be better prepared to absorb any key ingredients included in your skincare products and as oil production is lower. Select the right product for your skin type and bear in mind how your skin is behaving so you can adjust your routine - less is always more, you can always dial up if you feel its not doing quite enough.
NIGHT SKIN CARE TREATMENTS
If you do nothing else, by washing your face and applying a moisturiser you will support skin recovery more effectively. If you want to incorporate some overnight treatments too, your basic routine will support their effectiveness loads.
Choosing the right treatment depends on your concerns if you are experiencing the odd breakout, we have a great product for you to try:
RETINOL RECOVERY SERUM
Our newest product launch and this one is THE night time product if you're looking to improve your skin texture / acne scaring or reduce hyperpigmentation. We have 3 key ingredients in this lightweight serum that are specifically formulated to work gently to give you the best results - and we've carefully managed the ingredient inclusion so you can feel more confident and not worry about purging or irritation.
5% Encapsulated Retinol (0.05% retinol) is structured to quicken cell turnover and has rejuvenating properties to also help clear up + prevent blemished and blackheads. 5% Niacinamide will strengthen your skin barrier, keeping you skin hydrated and healthy. 5% While Mulberry Extract will help brighten and even skin tone - and all this whilst you're sleeping!!
BHA PHA Pore Refining solution
If you're into skin cycling and want to alternate your routing, this is one to include. Exfoliating at 2 different levels, hydrating and skin barrier protecting, this fabulous formulation will help you to reduce pore appearance, and refine your skin tone and texture.
4% Betaine Salicylate is our BHA of choice which has anti-microbial, exfoliating + moisturising functions. 4% Gluconolactone is THE PHA for sensitive skins - improving texture and tone, and banishing dull skin! Our formulation is completed with Chamomile Extract to soothe and calm skin - helping the skin barrier as it has powerful antioxidants which will support regeneration.
HYDROCOLLOID BLEMISH REPAIR PATCHES
Honestly, these are amazing for overnight skin support! Cleanse and tone your skin and then apply a patch on the spot or the area that you want to target. Press firmly so that the patch adheres to your skin and then go through your sleep routine as normal (reading, meditating but remember, try to avoid the phone). These patches are a great choice if you have spots and sensitive skin!
Whilst you're sleeping the patches are doing their stuff, gently drawing out the impurities and capturing it in the patch, and when you wake, the redness is reduced and gunk in the spot, lessened. Sometimes the spots can be stubborn and the patch application has simply forced the whitehead to appear - this is great as you have sped up the spots life-cycle - so reapply another patch and wear throughout the day.
BLEMISH REPAIR PASTE
Another great product to use whilst you sleep, is our Repair Paste - a Kaolin Clay based product that has Zinc and Bakuchiol to help reduce inflammation, calm the skin and help get things back under control.
The paste is easily personalised to suit your skin - if you have one spot or a wider area, you can use as much as is needed to cover the affected area to hep treat and recover. Face, chest, shoulders, back - all areas we get break outs and this works well everywhere!
This is a perfect spot treatment for Tween and Adult skin alike and will help flatten spots overnight. Simply apply before you go to bed, let it dry off before so you don't lose it to your pillow case or PJ's and let this paste do its work. Just like the patches, it can be used at anytime, day or night so you don't have to restrict yourself if you need to.
GET IN TOUCH
We hope that you've found this blog helpful - if you have any questions or would like to share your skincare journey with us, we'd love to hear from you. You can get in touch via the form below or by DM on IG.
