Beauty Sleep For Glowing And Healthy Skin

 

Do you average a full night of sleep for most days during a week?

If you don’t, have you noticed the effects of your sleep deprivation?

After pulling three all-nighters to study for various nursing school exams, I could see the results of my poor sleep on my face: I was breaking out, dark circles developed around my eyes, and my skin looked pale. In general, my lack of beauty sleep resulted in a ragged appearance, prompting many comments from my peers. These comments suddenly triggered my memory of a blog post Dr. Bailey wrote on how “Your Face is Really More Attractive after a Good Night’s Sleep.”

The Effects of No Beauty Sleep

Researchers from the Department of Psychology at Stockholm University point out the impact of sleep deprivation:

Because these facial regions are important in the communication between humans, facial cues of sleep deprivation and fatigue may carry social consequences for the sleep-deprived individual in everyday life.

In Dr. Bailey’s summary of this sleep study, the classic symptoms that appear on your face due to sleep deprivation are :

• Drooping eyelids and corners of the mouth
• Red eyes
• Dark circles
• Pale skin
• Swollen eyes
• Increased wrinkles

As you can see, I was sporting all the “unattractive” symptoms from lack of sleep. This is a fairly common problem in our fast-paced society, where sleep often takes a low spot on our priority list. Best method to prevent this: schedule sleep as a top priority. Good sleep not only has effects on one’s appearance, but on long-term health benefits as well.

However, if you are unable to avoid a bad night sleep is there a way to hide your sleep-deprived appearance? 

Dr. Bailey has a few tricks to help reverse the unwanted signs of sleep deprivation. Below is her targeted approach for your skin when you got a little less beauty sleep than usual.

How to Fake Your Beauty Sleep

Step 1: Brighten your complexion with gentle exfoliation and deep hydration.

Dr. Bailey’s favorite exfoliating cleanser is Replenix Exfoliating Scrub, especially when she burns the midnight oil. The bamboo micro-beads scrub away dead sallow skin to expose a brighter, new complexion.

The ingredient for the best deep hydration is hyaluronic acid; it helps the skin absorb 19% of hyaluronic acid’s weight in water for an instant plump. Dr. Bailey always turns to her Green Tea Antioxidant Skin Therapy Cream for a hyaluronic-rich skin product. Additionally, it is loaded with green tea extracts and caffeine to reduce the appearance of redness and inflammation. After cleansing with the Replenix Exfoliation Scrub, apply Dr. Bailey’s Green Tea Skin Therapy on your slightly damp skin (will lock in additional moisture if skin left slightly damp)!

 

Step 2: Lock in hydration with a moisturizer or moisturizing sunscreen.

If your sunscreen does not contain a moisturizer, use a moisturizer to further lock in the hydration provided by the Green Tea Skin Therapy. Apply Dr. Bailey’s Daily Moisturizing Face Cream Dry to Normal or Oily to Normal (depending on your skin type). Also Dr. Bailey’s All Natural Face and Body Butter and Lotion work great for sensitive skin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After applying a moisturizer, it is essential to apply zinc-oxide broad spectrum sunscreen to prevent sun damage to your skin. As Dr. Bailey stresses in many of her blog posts, she only recommends zinc-oxide sunscreens for the best anti-aging sun protection. A customer favorite, as well as Dr. Bailey’s, is Citrix Sunscreen that goes on clear and does not aggravate acne. Additionally, Glycolix Elite sunscreen is perfect for sensitive skin types and for application near the eyes.

 

Usually if you skipped out on your beauty sleep you want a skin care regimen with less steps as well. This is why Dr. Bailey loves to use sunscreen moisturizers, aka BB Creams, for on-the-go skin care.Suntegrity 5-1 BB Cream is multifaceted sunscreen beyond just sun protection and moisturizing, providing facial tinted primer and antioxidant skin therapy. If you have oily or rosacea type skin, use MD SolarSciences Mineral Tinted Creme as a moisturizing sunscreen.

Step 3: Target eye issues: swollen eyes, drooping eyelids, redness.

A summary of Dr. Bailey’s eye area remedies includes:

• All Natural Approach: Tea Bag and Cucumber Soak
  • Chill four boiled green/black tea bag or thinly sliced cucumbers in the ice water/fridge.

• Apply damp tea bags or cucumbers to your eyes while lying down (support head above heart) for 10 min.

• Change or re-chill as they warm.

• Skin Care Products: Replenix Eye Repair Cream
  • Combines of arnica, green tea polyphenols, retinol, and peptides to combat all eye issues (under-eye bags, dark circles, fine lines, and wrinkles) without irritating the delicate eye skin. 
  • Creates an excellent base for concealer application.

 

• Makeup Approach (Final step): Concealer
  • Art color correction – apply concealer with yellow hues to cover the purple coloration of dark circles.
  • Use mineral makeup with mica to help reflect light and decrease shadows under the eyes.
  • Example: Dr. Bailey’s Antique Beige Baked Mineral Powder is more slightly yellow then her natural skin tone. After applying this shade under her eye, Dr. Bailey then applies her natural skin tone color, her Baked Mineral Powder in Simply Beige.

Step 4: Combat Sagging Mouth Consequences

Unfortunately, there are no skin care products for this issue except to SMILE MORE! This will not only have a positive effect on those around you but it will lift your spirits as well. As Dr. Bailey says:

…sporting a smile helps lift our spirits.

However, there are cosmetic procedures, such as Juvederm, that use filler injections to provide a natural lift to corners of the mouth.

Take Home Message on Beauty Sleep

If you want to look and feel your best, it is vital to get your beauty sleep! Aim for eight hours of sleep a night and you will see the results not only in your appearance but in your energy as well. Dr. Bailey knows that this is not always possible, so at least now you have a few tricks to combat the signs of sleep deprivation.

If you have found these beauty sleep and skin care tips, please show your thanks by commenting on, sharing, “liking,” Google+, tweeting, and “pinning,” using the social sharing buttons above and below this blog post with friends and family.

Dr. Bailey Skin Care Team

References:

Sundelin T; Lekander M; Kecklund G; Van Someren EJW; Olsson A; Axelsson J. Cues of fatigue: effects of sleep deprivation on facial appearance. SLEEP 2013;36(9):1355-1360.

Axelsson J, Sundelin T, Ingre M, Van Someren EJ, Olsson A, Lekander M., Beauty sleep: experimental study on the perceived health and attractiveness of sleep deprived people. BMJ. 2010 Dec 14;341:c6614.

Photo attribution: Thanks and gratitude to © Doable/amanaimages/Corbis