How lack of sleep kills your beauty buzz

 

Finding you're not getting enough sleep each night? Here are 4 reasons why you NEED to get your beauty sleep.

 

Dullness & wrinkles
Skin loses life and luminosity when you don’t sleep for at least six to eight hours per night, says Tracey Beeby, head of training at Ultraceuticals. “With insufficient sleep, cortisol levels can rise, leading to a variety of skin dysfunctions,” she says. Your skin follows a regular schedule in cohesion with your body clock, fighting off damaging trespassers such as UV rays during the day and replenishing itself overnight. This nighttime wind-down allows for DNA repair, cellular energy production and detox, which peak after dark due to an increased blood flow to the skin. (If you often find yourself with rosy cheeks late at night, that’s your body telling you it’s time for bed.) So the less sleep you get, the less time your skin has to bounce back, leaving your face looking dull and lifeless the next day.

Acne & sagging
Severe sleep deprivation encourages the release of cortisol, a stress hormone that breaks down collagen, causing a loss in elasticity. Beeby states that these stress hormones impair the natural maintenance activities of the skin, leading to an increased rate of ageing, and also warns that increased levels of this hormone can stimulate oil production, leading to increased congestion and acne.

Puffy bags
“Lack of sleep can show as an accentuation of the hollows under the eyes, which are often referred to as ‘dark circles’ or tear troughs,” says Dr Gupta. “It can also accentuate any fine crepe-like wrinkles around the area.” So why does this happen? A lack of sleep causes deoxygenated blood vessels to dilate and flow closer to the skin’s surface. As the skin under our eyes is 10 times thinner than others areas of the face, say good morning to bluish-tinged panda eyes.

Puffy eyes
“Puffy eyes are caused by weakening of a membrane that holds fat pads around the eyeballs in our bony orbits. This weakness allows the fat pads to protrude forwards,” says Beeby. Puffy eyes may also be caused by sleeping on your stomach, which allows fluid to pool around your eyes. If you sleep on your side, you may wake to find one eye puffier than the other, so try sleeping on your back.

Read full article by Sara Veneris in the February edition of Women's Health and Fitness Magazine.

NEXT: How to apply flawless foundation.

 

{nomultithumb}

 

Read more ...