Here’s What Happens to Your Skin When You Don't Get Enough Sleep

The stress hormone known as cortisol can stress your skin just as it does to the rest of your body. According to Joshua Zeichner who is the current director of cosmetic and clinical research in Dermatology at New York City’s Mount Sinai Hospital, the levels or cortisol reduce naturally while we sleep.

This gives your body a chance to regenerate and shield itself. Thus, when you miss your sleep, this process gets interrupted resulting in high cortisol levels that affect the way our bodies heal as well as trigger acne breakouts.

Losing sleep can impair your body’s ability to fight off illness.

This makes it easier to get sick. Researchers even uncovered a reciprocal relationship between sleep and your immune system. You may lose additional sleep while your body fights off a bug if you get sick and haven’t had enough shut-eye.

Even missing one night of sleep can lead to some major cognition (thinking) issues. In a study published by Experimental Brain Research, a group of 18 men were given a task to complete. The first task was completed following a full night’s sleep. The next task was completed after skipping a night of sleep. Brain functions including memory, decision-making, reasoning, and problem-solving worsened, along with reaction time and alertness.

It dehydrates your skin

Dry skin is unattractive. When you fail to get adequate sleep, you are likely to end up with dry skin because your skin will have inflammation issues and skin barrier dysfunction. Zeichner recommends you to use a skin hydrating and plumping product that is supplemented with hyaluronic acid.

It makes your skin age faster

Collagen is a protein component of the skin that makes it look elastic and smooth. She also points out that lack of enough sleep inhibits the production of enough human growth hormone which is responsible for stimulating cell production. This compromises the thickness of the skin. If you deny your skin the time to generate fresh cells and repair the damaged ones, your skin tends to age faster, and the collagen will become rigid prematurely. To remedy this, you can use a retinol product that can boost healthy collagen production. Applying an anti-aging cream on your skin during the night can also do wonders.

Your skin is the window to what’s going on in your body internally, so if you’re not sleeping and your system isn’t functioning properly, you’re going to notice the aftermath on your face.