Are you getting enough sleep for clear skin?
Lack of sleep is often associated with stress, which can in turn promote acne, but the benefits of consistently getting a decent night’s sleep don’t end there. Managing and defeating your acne is a lot easier if you allow your body the rest it needs. If you are like many of us, the holidays included quite a few late nights that may have thrown off your typical sleep schedule. Worse yet are some of you that simply don’t have good sleep habits in the first place. Make this new year an opportunity to adopt some healthy sleep habits that can help you maintain clear skin in the coming months.
While you might not realize it, your body actually gets a lot accomplished while you are asleep. It’s common among acne sufferers to attack their faces before bed, hopeful that things will be less red and swollen the next morning. While picking at your acne is a bad idea, the fact is those blemishes often do look better the next morning, and the reason for this is that your body is especially effective at healing itself while you are asleep. This is when you are best able to take care of the tissue repair needed to heal those acne blemishes. As such, when you are getting less sleep, you are also giving your body less repair time, which means those acne scars will look worse than they should. You may be able to “get by” with six hours of sleep, but to promote clear skin you really should be trying to get those eight hours every night.
You’ve probably all heard the phrase “I need to get my beauty sleep” - often referring to a mid-day nap. Well, the term “beauty sleep” has more truth to it than you might have thought. However, provided that you are getting enough sleep at night, you don’t necessarily need to be taking naps as well. Keeping your metabolism up helps for combating acne as well, and sleeping all day can have a negative effect on this. Also, your body is able to be more productive over prolonged periods of sleep, rather than the short spurts that naps provide.
A central theme to keep in mind with almost any bodily habit is consistency. Your body likes to work with a consistent schedule. This applies to your sleeping habits as well. You don’t want to be frequently getting five hours of sleep one night and ten the next. Try to consistently get eight hours of sleep each night, going to bed and waking up at the same time. Unlike the drowsiness that many feel when they get too little or too much sleep, you’ll feel more invigorated during the day, and your body will best be able to prevent (or heal from) any potential acne breakouts.
