Sleep Position
In order for the skin to remain healthy and young-looking it needs to be able to move and breathe. This is especially true when we’re sleeping. People who sleep on their side or their belly tend to see a higher incidence of developing facial wrinkles. It makes perfect sense, if you stop and think about.
You’ve seen the sleep lines in your own face when you first wake up in the morning. These lines are caused by your face being buried in the pillow all night long. They go away very quickly when we’re young, but the older one gets the less elastic his skin is, and those sleep lines can become permanently etched in the underlying tissue of the face. People who sleep on their backs are much less likely to see sleep lines become permanent lines or wrinkles.
Furthermore, part of the cell rejuvenation process is the removal of dead skin cells as they are replaced with new ones. When a portion of your face is in contact with a pillow for eight hours it becomes much more difficult for this to happen. This hinders the rebuilding process while encouraging skin blemishes.
Lack of Sleep
Experts estimate that the average adult needs between 7 and 9 hours of sleep per night for maximum rest and tissue rebuilding. Unfortunately, the same experts suggest that most of us average only 6 to 7 hours. And where does the first place a lack of sleep shows up? In the face. You see it with dark circles under the eyes and saggy, drawn-out skin. Just like sleep position can aggravate the natural effects of aging, lack of sleep can actually accelerate the appearance of wrinkles, dark spots, crow’s feet, etc.
Lack of sleep negatively affects the skin in another way as well. Sleep serves the purpose of allowing the body to rest and repair after a long day of damaging behavior. The more rest one gets, the more his body is able to repair itself. A lack of sleep inhibits the body’s repair mechanisms which become evident in the skin.
Things You Can Do
Where sleep is concerned, the best thing to do is to create a pleasant sleep environment which allows 8 or 9 hours of rest. Along with good sleep habits, you can also introduce a regimen of anti-aging cream applied to the face, and a host of other natural supplements that will increase overall health. You may not be able to prevent aging altogether, but you can certainly slow down the effects it has on your skin.
