Jenni Gilbert Are your clients paying enough attention to their night-time skin regime? Do they tend to see it as unnecessary expenditure to buy separate formulations to nurture skin as they sleep? Heaven forbid, do they sometimes sleep in their makeup? (Editor’s note: Guilty!)
Matoyla Kollaras* explains why it’s perhaps even more important to treat skin with extra TLC before bed than when getting ready for the day:
The unconscious hours of sleep are a time for important hard work for the body. It’s the time the body can undergo upgrade, repair and detoxify, recover from damage, and create reservoirs to help protect itself against illness.
Every tissue in the body is renewed faster during sleep than at any time when awake because, while you sleep, the brain triggers the release of hormones that encourage tissue restoration and growth.
The skin is the largest organ of the body, and hence also a recipient of the vital recovery, rejuvenating and regenerative properties of sleep.
During the day, the skin – being first and foremost an organ of protection – is in defence mode against such factors as UV radiation and free radicals. In addition, the state of the body is dominated by the work of stimulating hormones such as adrenaline and corticosteroids.
When we sleep however, we move into an anabolic state and the skin “lets its guard down”, switching into conservation, repair and maintenance mode.
As levels of adrenaline and corticosteroids drop, the body starts to produce human growth hormone (HGH). All these actions have a direct bearing on the health and vitality of skin.
Furthermore, the elimination of toxins occurs primarily at night while the body rests.
WRINKLE RECOVERY
Skin makes new collagen during sleep – part of the natural repair process. According to dermatologists, getting only five hours a night can lead to twice as many fine lines developing as sleeping seven would.
COMPLEXION PERFECTION
Microcirculation, and thus blood flow, in the skin is boosted during sleep. On the other hand, sleep deprivation causes a decrease in blood flow to the skin, leaving it potentially dull, dry, ashen and lifeless.
PRODUCTS WORK BETTER
Skin can focus on repairing itself during sleep as it isn’t defending itself from sun and free radicals. Blood flow is also more consistent, and this helps skin benefit from skin-repairing ingredients in targeted night-time products.
NOT ENOUGH SLEEP WORSENS SKIN CONDITIONS
- Inadequate and/or poor sleep can lead to increased stress hormones in the body that increase the severity of inflammatory skin conditions such as acne, psoriasis, eczema and dermatitis, and skin sensitivity.
- You need anywhere between seven and nine hours sleep. However, it also has to be quality undisturbed sleep, because sleep phases determine the healing and regeneration ability. If you are waking up every couple of hours, no matter that you have slept eight hours, your body will not recover fully. During undisturbed sleep (or slow-wave sleep), the plasma growth hormone (human growth hormone – somatropin) in humans is found to be at its highest levels. If the sleep stage process is interrupted, complete repair of soft tissues is impossible due to the resulting decrease or absence of human growth hormone – somatropin.
- Increased inflammatory cells in the body lead to an increase in the breakdown of collagen and hyaluronic acid.
- Not enough sleep makes immune-related skin problems worse. Increased inflammation interferes with the body’s ability to regulate the immune system, leading to flare-ups of immune-related skin diseases such as psoriasis and eczema.
- During sleep the body’s hydration rebalances. Skin is able to recover moisture, while excess water in general in the body is processed for removal. Not getting enough sleep results in poor water balance, leading to puffy bags under the eyes and under-eye circles, as well as dryness and more visible wrinkles.
- During deep sleep, an increase in the production of growth hormones allows damaged cells to become repaired. Without the deeper phases of sleep, this won’t occur, allowing daily small breakdowns to accumulate instead of being reversed overnight. This results in more noticeable signs of ageing.
INGREDIENTS THAT WORK THE NIGHT SHIFT
Choose ingredients that work with the skin’s night time functions and don’t over-challenge the skin (ie. not overly active).
For example, vitamin C by nature of its UVB protective benefits, better suited to day time care.
Retinol and its derivatives are better suited to night care as it degrades readily in sunlight. This is by no means a complete list, however these are excellent night-shift ingredients to look for in formulations:
Skin restoring Ingredients (particularly hydration boosting ingredients): Hyaluronic acid (sodium hyaluronate), sodium PCA, tehalose, Collaxyl™, ceramides, Lipegenine™, seabuckthorn 2.
Anti-Inflammatory and Antioxidant (functioning as skin healing agents and immune-builders): resveratrol, astaxanthin, niacinamide, Pycnogenol, St John’s Wort, Quintescine™, arnica, centella asiatica, calendula, chamomile.
Cell Communicators: Retinol (and derivatives), melatonin, pentapeptides, adenosine, glycoproteins, minerals (magnesium, selenium, zinc), carnosine.
Probiotics (to help restore correct flora levels): Venuceane™, lactobacillus ferment, yeast extract.
Proteins: Essential fatty acids, GLA, various peptides, soy/silk/wheat proteins, amino acids (creatine, alanine, glycine)
Night-time skincare is better suited to post-adolescent skin. Younger skin is pretty resilient because of general body strength and health – even when youngsters are burning the candles at both ends, they still manage to maintain youthful-looking skin.
*Matoyla Kollaras is managing director of Skin Factors, distributors in Australia of Christina Cosmeceuticals and Ahava Dead Sea skincare. For night-time use, from Ahava she recommends: Beauty Before Age Uplift Night Cream, Extreme Night Treatment, Dead Sea Osmoter Concentrate, and Dead Sea Crystal Osmoter Concentrate. From Christina Cosmeceuticals she recommends: Retinal E Active Cream, Wish Night Cream, Wish Radiance Cream Unstress Harmonising Night Cream and Forever Young Repairing Cream.
