If the question does lack of sleep cause acne, is occupying your thoughts and bothering you right now, be warned that not getting sufficient sleep is reason enough for a big flare up of acne. While the assertion has the support of detailed research studies it’s better still to have a more detailed look at the topic itself and be convinced that lack of sleep does in fact cause acne.
Can insufficient sleep also cause acne?
Whenever you find yourself mulling over the subject of acne formation, it’s not unusual to find that the main factors that form and create acne breakouts have to do with factors such as excess oil production, dirt and bacteria.
What many people seem to overlook is the reality that a good night’s sleep can help thwart the onslaught of an acne breakout just as much as the lack of sleep will make it worse.
The often mentioned cliché about sleep for enhancing beauty or the beauty sleep is not a fantasy saying at all, but a true reality.
It doesn’t matter if anyone brushes, cleans and tones away at the skin to make it more sparkling, radiant and smooth. If they’re not experiencing a solid and restful night’s sleep each night, all is futile and the stark truth will be disclosed by a worsening of their acne breakout.
The importance of sleep
Is getting a good night’s sleep really important? Well, if not, the experts on the subject wouldn’t be making such a big fuss about it. First off is that most of us aren’t getting the eight hour shut eye we’re supposed to get.
And it’s no exaggeration to say that as a result we are surprised to find that our skins are suffering from this lack of sleep that’s being caused by stress and the drudgery of everyday life.
We have constantly been reminded by our knowledge of science that when we slumber, our bodies are awake, working vigorously at repairing the damage done to tissues and cells during the day.
It appears that getting the right amount of sleep is good for the skin and it can help in prevention acne from appearing. But what about the actual lack of sleep, does it cause acne? Let’s have a look.
Acne and the lack of sleep connection
There’s not much data to show much less prove that lack of sleep actually causes acne.
However, some evidence does show that the bad effects of not getting sufficient sleep every night can affect your skin making it possible for new acne breakouts to take place.
Even though there’s a paucity of data, experts maintain that some scientific books actually show that there’s a clear relationship between sleep and stress. The correlation is that acne is affected by stress by the production of more stress hormones (Cortisol) which increase the production of the oily substance sebum.
Studies show that lack of good quality sleep can induce an increase of the Cortisol stress hormone which then causes inflammation of the skin and the production of sebum through the sebaceous glands which in turn can clog up the pores.
All this means that with more sebum (oil) available the acne bacteria now has more food at its disposable which means that more acne can now form and pop up at the skin’s surface.
Not enough sleep, acne and the Immune System
Experts believe that sleep of less than 6 hours each night will have a worsening effect on your acne.
It has been found that insufficient sleep will definitely cause an imbalance in your immune system and reduces its ability to combat the acne bacteria.
The Skin’s healing process and insufficient sleep
During sleep the skin enters an important process of healing when it maintains and repairs itself and this enables the body to heal your acne and also helps to prevent the aging of the skin.
Not getting enough sleep deprives the body of these two important processes. What takes place during sleep is the increased production of melatonin, a hormone that changes the color of the skin.
The hormone production doesn’t make us sleepy but it increases the skin’s ability to repair itself as we sleep away during the night to make up for the damage caused by ultra violet sunlight and other enemies of your skin.
As you sleep, the levels of cortisol in your body can also be regulated so that your skin becomes less susceptible to inflammation and therefore less prone to the attack of an acne breakout.
Hours of sleep every night
We are now aware that even though not enough sleep can directly result in an acne breakout, other negative effects that result from insufficient sleep ultimately impact the emergence of more acne.
It’s important then that you prioritize on getting enough sleep so that it can become part of the positive side of getting your body and especially your skin fine-tuned, ready for another day’s work.
It may not prevent the formation and appearance of acne but getting enough sleep will help in other ways and you’ll be doing yourself a favor by heeding the advice that’s being offered.
It’s really all about giving support to your stress, immune system and physical and mental wellbeing and your general ability to function at your peak.
Therefore the goal here is to avoid the negative effects of insufficient sleep each night and it’s recommended that:
- For adults aged 18 – 60 years of age, 7 hours of sleep each night
- For teens aged 13 – 18 years of age, 8 to 10 hours of sleep each night.
More tips on sleep and acne
Prevention is better than cure is the popular saying used when pre-empting the onslaught of an illness. There are many preventive measures for acne, some of which we have discussed earlier in this article but for your own benefit, here are some more:
- Clean face wash
Thoroughly cleaning your face after a hard day’s work at the office is critical for ridding debris, bacteria and dirt. All kinds of pore clogging material such as makeup and ointments are present and should be cleared away. Make sure you have a suitable facial cleanser for doing the job.
- Pillowcase change
If you have acne prone skin, a clean pillow to sleep on is what you need. A dirty pillow will rapidly spread the oil and dirt present on your face and can cause more acne breakouts. Make sure your regularly wash your pillowcases to prevent breakouts you don’t want to happen.
- Abstain from alcohol before bed
Your REM sleep is a key factor here which takes place several times during sleep. The signs include fluttering of the eyes under the lids, dreaming or a faster heart beat which indicates that the body is restoring itself. This is good but alcohol can interfere with your REM sleep and you wake up groggy in the morning instead of being rejuvenated.
Bottom line
You should now be more confident from knowing that lack of sleep doesn’t directly cause acne but other negative effects that do arise from lack of sleep may certainly cause acne. Nevertheless, it’s worthwhile knowing that getting enough sleep is very important for the rejuvenation of the body especially the skin which is in the first line of attack against exterior enemies such as the UV rays of the sun.
