The Benefits of a Good Night's Sleep

The Truth About Beauty Sleep
You know what you look like when you’ve pulled an all-nighter and skipped your beauty sleep. Your eyes are droopy and puffy, your hair is limp, your skin is dull. You feel 20 years older. Guess what? Your body may think you are!

Sleep isn’t just something you do to pass the time at night. “Sleep is absolutely essential,” says Lisa Shives, MD, DABSM, founder of Northshore Sleep Medicine in Chicago. “All living creatures we’ve ever encountered have to sleep. Sleep is restorative to your body -- your grandmother could have told you that.”

Your grandmother may not have known why. But today, we know that chronic sleep deprivation takes a toll that actually mimics the aging process. A study that deliberately deprived healthy young men of sleep found that, very quickly, these men developed striking alterations in metabolic and endocrine function including elevated levels of the stress hormone cortisol, impaired immune and thyroid function, and early signs of diabetes.

The Link Between Sleep and Your Appearance

Scientists have spent a lot more time studying the detrimental effects of sleep deprivation on your health (and the health benefits of good sleep) than how sleep affects your physical appearance. But a lot of what they’ve learned in understanding sleep and your health seems to apply to sleep and beauty, as well.
Our cells repair themselves while we sleep, says Shives. Sleep is a restorative time for all our body systems. And that likely includes cells in our skin as well as in our immune systems.

• Growth hormones peak during deep sleep and contribute to cell and tissue repair. Restless, intermittent sleep can interrupt that process. 
• Also, collagen 1 production is accelerated during sleep, and collagen helps keep moisture in our skin. When your skin is dehydrated, it looks less youthful and supple, more dull and dry. 
• Our deepest stage of sleep, known as delta sleep, is the time when the body’s growth hormones kick-start the repair of cells and tissues. 
• Suppressing the immune system doesn’t just mean you’re more likely to catch a cold. Your skin is affected too, and you may be more likely to get rashes like psoriasis.

“Sleep is also restorative to our cognitive and emotional function,” says Shives. We need adequate sleep to stay calm and pleasant, inside and out.

Is Beauty Sleep a Bygone Concept?

Despite growing evidence about the benefits of sleep, most Americans have cut back on the hours of sleep we get each night.
“Over the last 100 years, Americans have reduced our total nightly sleep time by between one and two hours,” says Donna Arand, PhD, DABSM, the clinical director of the Kettering Sleep Disorders Center in Dayton, Ohio. “That’s a huge change on our systems. Everyone is focusing on eating healthy and getting regular exercise, but we neglect our sleep, which is an enormous part of wellness. You might think you can ‘get by’ on not enough sleep -- but getting by isn’t good enough.”
And the first sign of deeper trouble may be those puffy eyes, dark circles, and drab skin. The next time you’re tempted to buy a pricey product that will “give your skin that healthy glow,” think twice and prescribe yourself seven or more hours of sleep a night for the next week instead. After that, take a look in the mirror and see how well your new “miracle treatment” worked!