Beauty sleep: how sleep improves your skin

Why do we  look so rubbish when we don't get enough sleep? And it's not coincidental! It turns out 'getting your beauty sleep' is no myth but instead, there are scientific reasons why lack of sleep shows on your face.

The first few hours of sleep - when you're in deep-sleep mode - is the time when catabolysis (the natural purification of cells) is most active. That means your body needs adequate sleep to clear out all the rubbish from your cells so you can wake up looking refreshed.

Dermatologists at the Case Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio, carried out a series of tests on good and poor sleepers ('poor' means habitually five hours or less sleep a night; 'good' means seven or more hours every night), and found that those who got more sleep lost less moisture from their skin and were better able to recover from exposure to the sun. The good sleepers also had a better perception of how they looked - they felt more satisfied with their looks and rated themselves as younger and healthier than their sleep-starved counterparts.

Related links on prevention and treatment of skin aging: The Role of Antioxidants, Regarding Dark Circles, Firming creams, Topical vitamin C, Nutricosmetics.