The Face Of Sleep Deprivation

You can almost always tell when a person is sleep-deprived, as it shows immediately in their skin, mood, and overall health.

Our bodies depend on a good night’s sleep for rest and recovery from the day's stressors. During eight hours of sleep, our bodies go through three distinct stages that contribute to our overall well-being – and aid in the nightly restoration of our skin.

Without regular, quality sleep, your skin’s ability to repair and rejuvenate itself is impaired. You may start to notice an increase in fine lines, uneven pigmentation, inflammation, and reduced elasticity in your skin.

Simply put, your lack of sleep may contribute to your breakouts or make you look older than your actual years.

1. ELEVATED CORTISOL LEVELS

When the body is sleep-deprived, it increases its production of this stress hormone.

The effects of high Cortisol levels on your skin:

Premature aging
Elevated Cortisol inhibits fibroblast function and accelerates collagen and elastin breakdown.Cortisol also inhibits growth factors and decreases skin elasticity and thickness, leading to accelerated skin aging.

Dark circles under your eyes
When cortisol levels rise, the amount of blood in your body does, too. When this happens, blood vessels are forced to expand to accommodate the excess blood. Dilated blood vessels make dark circles more visible and give the appearance of “blood-shot” eyes.

Dull skin
Cortisone triggers inflammation, which breaks down the proteins that keep your skin smooth and radiant. Inflammation can also make your skin more prone to acne and sensitive to allergic reactions.

Puffy eyes
Retention of fluid around the eyes causes the under-eye area to appear puffy. This is often seen as “bags”, and the shadows that appear as dark circles are enhanced.

2. GROWTH HORMONE REDUCTION

In the first three hours of sleep, your pituitary gland produces somatotropin, the human growth hormone. You may not be producing enough of it if you don't get adequate rest.

This hormone helps to repair damaged skin cells and contributes to the maintenance of youthful and healthy skin. Without somatotropin, the daily breakdown in your skin doesn’t get a chance to repair overnight. Over time this can lead to more visible signs of aging.

Inadequate somatotropin further accelerates the aging process by breaking down collagen and elastic tissue, causing loose skin and wrinkles to develop.

3. DECREASED LEVELS OF MELATONIN

During the middle two hours of sleep your levels of melatonin increase. Melatonin is a hormone responsible for regulating your circadian rhythm (sleep/wake patterns) and acts as an antioxidant that helps protect the skin from free radicals – unstable atoms that cause illness and aging.

4. POOR BLOOD CIRCULATION

Poor oxygen-rich blood circulation to your skin that leads to dull, lifeless skin. You lose your rosy cheeks.

Healthy sleep is when your body repairs itself. It is when some of the most critical internal and epidermal recoveries occur.

STAGE 1: FIRST THREE HOURS

The pituitary gland produces somatotropin, the human growth hormone that repairs damaged skin cells.

STAGE 2: THE MIDDLE TWO HOURS

Production of the hormone melatonin increases. Melatonin works as an antioxidant that helps protect the skin from damaging free radicals (unstable atoms that cause illness and aging).

STAGE 3: THE LAST TWO TO FOUR HOURS

During this final stage, known as REM sleep (Rapid Eye Movement), your cortisol (stress hormone) levels begin to decrease.
The skin’s temperature also drops to its lowest point allowing muscles to relax and become immobile.
Collagen production increases, giving skin its most profound recovery of the night.

1. Get some rest. The first thing to do is create a bedtime routine and stick to it. If you decide to hit the pillow at 10 p.m., go to bed every night at that hour. Strive for 7 to 9 hours of sleep every night.

2. Elevate your head with an extra pillow or bed wedge. This reduces snoring, acid reflux, and nasal drip – all of which can limit the quality of your sleep, which affects the appearance of your skin.

3. Wash your face to remove oils, dirt, and makeup before bedtime. 

4. Apply skin-repairing serums at night. Reparative and restorative active ingredients is much more effective when applied at night. While you sleep, your skin can focus on repairing itself since it isn’t defending itself from the sun and free radicals (harmful molecules from the environment). Blood flow is also more consistent, and this helps your skin benefit from the tissue-repairing ingredients in your treatment products.

5. Apply Time Freeze eye serum or Dark circle eye serum about 15 minutes before turning in for the night. This gives them a chance to work, rather than merely rubbing off on the pillowcase.

TIME FREEZE EYE SERUM

Time Freeze eye serum reduces the depth of wrinkles around the eyes caused by the contraction of muscles of facial expression. It visibly improves the skin's elasticity by building up collagen and decreasing wrinkle progression.

This formulation contains a special blend of active ingredients that firms the eye contour and strengthen vessels and tissues around the eyes.

It stimulates the production of collagen and elastin that restore the strength of the vascular wall, in addition to promoting the re-densification of the skin.

Time Freeze Eye serum transforms tired, dull, aging skin into a glowing and youthful complexion.

DARK CIRCLE EYE SERUM

A powerful formulation that targets dark circles, puffiness, and signs of aging to deliver radiant and energized eyes.

Dark circle eye serum contains 1% Vitamin K1 and 0.15% Vitamin A (Retinol) entrapped in a polymeric delivery system that gradually releases the entrapped vitamins for penetration into the epidermis and the dermis.

The combination of active ingredients improves microvascular integrity and microcirculation, reduces swelling, and stimulates the skin’s firmness.

This has a dual effect of reducing dark circles and spider veins and shrinking puffy areas, resulting in smooth and vibrant skin.