WHAT HAPPENS TO YOUR
SKIN WHILE YOU SLEEP?
By Shari Shallard
S
ometimes it seems that half our prod-
ucts are designed to cover up signs of
a bad night’s sleep, while the other
half are formulated to work miracles while
we snooze. Why is sleep such a cornerstone
of our skin care regime? affect the absorption of products through the
skin barrier. Theoretically, this could mean
that the active ingredients in your night cream
may have a greater chance of penetrating into
the deeper layers of the skin, giving them
greater efficacy.
We talked to Dr Catherine Borysiewicz, a
Consultant Dermatologist at the Cadogan Clinic
in London and at Imperial College Healthcare
NHS Trust, about what’s happening when we
sleep and how to best harness the power of
catching those Zs. SHM: We often hear that our skin cells ‘regen-
erate’ while we sleep. What’s happening on
the inside?
CB: We’ve all heard the expression ‘beauty sleep’.
However, little is known about what happens
to skin cells during sleep. The central clock for
setting human sleep patterns is in the hypothal-
amus; it’s suspected that the cells making up
the skin and its supporting structures also have
‘mini clock’ genes and proteins that are able to
coordinate variations in cell activity.
SHM: Does skin respond to topical products
differently while we sleep?
CB: Some studies have suggested that changes
in skin barrier function and temperature may
ISSUE #10 | 2019 | SkinHealthMagazine.com 10