What extent does staying up late ‘destroy’ the skin?

Staying up late, lack of sleep for a long time not only causes fatigue, but also causes the skin to deteriorate because it does not have enough time to recover and regenerate.

The period from 22:00 to 23:00 is the time when the skin recovers. If you miss this time, your skin will be adversely affected.

Sleep is not only a time for the body to rest, it is also a time for the skin to repair defects and regenerate cells. During 8 hours of sleep each night, the skin goes through three stages of recovery.

During the first three hours of sleep, the pituitary gland produces somatotropin, a hormone that helps maintain youthful and healthy skin.
Over the next two hours, levels of the hormone melatonin increased. Melatonin acts as an antioxidant, helping to protect the skin from the damaging effects of free radicals.
During the last three hours of sleep, cortisol levels in the body begin to gradually decrease, and at the same time, skin temperature also drops, which is the time when the skin recovers most strongly. When cortisol levels decrease, collagen production increases, which softens the skin, blurs small wrinkles, and makes the skin smooth and youthful.

Staying up late for a long time, not getting enough sleep makes the body tired and the skin tone down because there is not enough time to complete the recovery process. Dermatologists point out some skin problems that can be encountered when you lack sleep.

1. Pimples

Dermatologist Nick Lowe from the UK points out, lack of sleep reduces blood flow to the skin, causing the body to secrete more stress hormones. Cortisol inhibits collagen production, breaks down the skin barrier, makes the skin more sensitive to environmental aggressors and free radicals, which is the leading cause of acne.‏‏

2. Dark circles, eye bags

Not getting enough sleep, staying up late often makes blood vessels not circulate, lack of oxygen, the skin does not provide enough nutrition. Thereby accumulating dark circles under the eyes and long-term formation of wrinkles. In addition to genetic factors, most of the causes of dark circles under the eyes are often due to frequent staying up late or lack of sleep or fatigue.

Staying up late, lack of sleep accelerates the aging process.

3. Showing signs of aging

After just one or a few consecutive nights of sleep deprivation, you’ll notice dull, pale skin. This is due to the disruption of skin cell regeneration. According to dermatologist Gretchen Frieling, lack of sleep causes collagen to not be produced enough to prevent signs of aging such as sagging, wrinkles. Lack of sleep also makes the skin lose its pH balance, the moisture under the skin decreases, making the skin dry, lifeless, easy to appear crow’s feet, deep wrinkles.

Advice from a dermatologist

According to the recommendations of dermatologists, you should sleep from 7 to 9 hours a night. Maintain a routine of cleansing and moisturizing your skin before going to bed. If you often have trouble falling asleep, do not sleep deeply, you should create some good habits before going to bed such as limiting watching TV, phone, gentle yoga, meditation to reduce stress…