Every day your skin is aging. And the simple process of washing your face before bed is an excellent way to mitigate the external factors associated with aging and to stimulate the internal processes that fight aging.

Research has shown that certain physiological changes in the skin do occur overnight. Like many of our organs, our skin can tell night from day. According to Dr. David R. Weaver, a neurobiology professor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, biological processes vary over 24 hours as a result of time-sensitive “clocks” within our cells.

Overnight, the skin needs oxygen to repair itself. Sleeping with your makeup on deprives it of this vital nutrient. “When makeup is left on, it blocks the natural exfoliating process, which can leave your skin looking dull”, says Dr. Robins Ashinoff, Director of Cosmetic Dermatology at Hackensack Medical Center in New Jersey.

Your skin heats up at night, allowing beneficial ingredients to penetrate better. Your blood flow also increases at night. When blood flow is increased so is absorption and penetration of ingredients, allowing those ingredients to really go to work.

If you don’t wash your face before bed it’s a missed opportunity to do something great for your skin and to wake up with smoother, softer, clearer skin.

Your face is covered with excess sebum (oil), dead skin cells, and pollution. Not to mention makeup. A cleanser will emulsify and remove this from the surface of your skin. This dirt, oil and dead skin cells can seep deep down, clogging pores. Once your collagen levels start to decline (due to aging), enlarged pores do not snap back easily. Dirty, unwashed skin can lead to inflammation that can generate free radicals and collagen breakdown.

Skin temperature rises overnight, leading to trans-epidermal water loss (evaporation), which is why our skin can sometimes feel itchier at night. When you wash your face at night, you are able to apply a rehydration serum or moisturizer that will help hydrate your skin while you sleep.

And it’s crucial to get a good cleanse in the morning, because healing takes place at night and you’ll have sebum and dead skin cells that you’ll want to slough off for beautiful skin.

Overnight your skin recovers, which means in the morning you have more dead skin cells to slough off, and more excess sebum (oil) to emulsify. These can’t be rinsed away with mere water, you need to dislodge them & then rinse them away.

Just as you won't skip brushing your teeth in the morning because you did it before bed, you should not skip your morning face cleanse. You would also not want to put your makeup on top of dead skin cells & excess oil.

If you are looking for a multi-tasking cleanser that cleanses, exfoliates and can be left on as a face mask – have a look at the DermExcel™ Facial cleansers.