Dear Beauty Conscious Reader,
What can erase wrinkles in only 8 hours and doesn’t cost a cent?
Sleep!
Getting enough sleep is good for your health, but it’s great for your skin. Think of sleep as your nightly face lift. You’re giving your skin a chance to repair itself.
While you’re dreaming, your skin is renewed and restored. Your skin texture improves, because old, dead skin cells are replaced. Harmful effects from your daily life are reversed. You literally wake with a new glow.
Many things can keep you from getting 8 hours. Work, friends, your favorite TV show, or a good book. But sleep needs to be on the top of your priority list.
When you wake up in the morning after not getting enough sleep, what do you see in the mirror? Your eyes look hollow, and your cheeks sink in. You look old before your time. Researchers found without sleep, your body begins to waste away, the same as if you were starving yourself to death.1
By losing sleep, you rob your immune system of the energy it needs to fight infection.2 You’ll catch more colds and flu viruses. In one study, animals that lost seven hours of sleep came down with viruses even after they were immunized. The animals that got enough sleep did not. Immunization had no effect without enough sleep.3
When you lose sleep, you look old and sick for a reason. Your skin cells can’t repair themselves. When you lose your defense system, bacteria and other invaders can cause blemishes or reactions like swollen eyes and dark circles.4
A great way to improve your sleep quality is by increasing the level of melatonin in your body. Melatonin is a natural, protective hormone. The amount you have decreases as you age. Melatonin helps you fall asleep and keeps you sleeping deeper throughout the night.
Melatonin has many benefits. One is its beautifying effect on the skin. Melatonin helps in the production of collagen and elastin to keep your skin firm and young looking.5 It’s a potent antioxidant that fights against damage that causes your skin to wrinkle and age.6
To increase melatonin naturally, make sure you spend time each day in bright, natural sunlight. Then go to sleep in a completely dark bedroom. Make sure you don’t have the TV running or a night light on. Wear a sleep mask if you have to. Any light at all, no matter how tiny, will disrupt the production of melatonin.
You can also a purchase melatonin supplement at most vitamin shops. You can get a pill to swallow, but I suggest you look for drops, or a sublingual that melts under your tongue. It’s easier to absorb and works fast.
Only a small amount is necessary. Take it 20 minutes before you want to fall asleep. Start with 0.5 mg and work your way up to 3 mg. Larger doses don’t have the same effect. So don’t take too much, or it won’t work.
To Your Good Health,
Al Sears, MD
- Everson, C. “Sustained sleep deprivation impairs host defense.” Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol 1993; 265: R1148-R1154.
- Palmblad J, Petrini B, Wasserman J, Akerstedt T. “Lymphocyte and granulocyte reactions during sleep deprivation.” Psychosom Med. 1979 Jun;41(4):273-8.
- Brown R, Pang G, et al. “Suppression of immunity to influenza virus infection in the respiratory tract following sleep disturbance.” Reg Immunol. 1989 Sep-Oct;2(5):321-5.
- Henry F, Arrese JE, Claessens N, Piérard-Franchimont C, Piérard GE. “Skin and its daily chronobiological clock.” Rev Med Liege. 2002 Oct;57(10):661-5.
- Slominski A, Pisarchik A, et al. “Functional activity of serotoninergic and melatoninergic systems expressed in the skin.” J Cell Physiol. 2003 Jul;196(1):144-53.
- Esrefoglu M, et al. “Potent therapeutic effect of melatonin on aging skin in pinealectomized rats.” J Pineal Res. 2005 Oct;39(3):231-7.