Why Sleep Affects Your Skin And How Essential Oils Can Help

For many of us, our beds are our happy place. The warm comfort of the pillow balanced by a rejuvenating quiet can feel like absolute heaven. As any human can tell you, most of us don’t get enough sleep each night. It’s not our fault, really. Our modern world absorbs so much of us that by bedtime, our minds are often pulsating with anxiety and stress. Moreover, if you’re not getting enough sleep (CDC recommends 7-9 hours a night) your skin might be suffering.

Here’s why:

1. Cell Degeneration: During the wee hours of the night, our skin cells are more likely to undergo mitosis because sleep both relaxes and renews the body. A full night’s rest allows more time for your skin to replenish so you wake looking fresh as a daisy. Without good sleep, your skin cells don’t have time to properly repair.
2. Inflammation: A lack of sleep can activate stress hormones that amplify skin issues caused by inflammation. Acne and blotchiness only get worse as your hormones spike. An influx of inflammation can also break down collagen production.
3. Moisture Loss: Your skin rehydrates while you get your ZZZs. Insufficient sleep quality can lead to dryer, flakier skin. A recent study found that people who achieved proper sleep were less likely to experience transepidermal water loss. When your skin holds moisture effectively, it heals more quickly and protects more readily against free radicals.
4. Dark Circles + Bags: When you’re tired, your body generates cortisol to keep you moving and grooving. As this happens, more blood is pumped into your body which creates larger blood vessels. The bigger the blood vessels are, the more likely you can see them through the skin, like when dark circles show up. In the same way, puffy bags under your eyes occur because fat cells skyrocket when you’re running on empty.
5. Stress: As if not sleep deprivation wasn’t enough, your skin adds an extra layer of punishment with breakouts, redness and dullness when you’re stressed. Science even backs this super evil phenomenon up. When you’re cortisol levels (stress hormones) surge because you're stressed, your glands start flooding your skin with oil which can cause pimples, blackheads and all sorts of other teenagery-fun.

Essential Oils To The Rescue

If reading everything prior to this bummed you out, fear not! Our 100% pure essential oils can help you get better sleep AND improve the condition of your skin. 

Here’s how:

• Diffuse our sleep synergy blends before bedtime. Give in to the relaxing effects of aromatherapy with Good Night, Sleep Ease, Sleepy Head and Sound Asleep. Each may work a little differently on you so be sure to try them all. Not only can they help you fall asleep, our sleep synergy blends are formulated to improve the quality and duration of deep sleep.
• Do Face Yoga With Essential Oils. When you’re tired, the muscles in your face can weaken and sag. Face yoga incorporates effective and subtle exercises to provide resistance to those muscles in order to activate and lift them. After daily face yoga exercise, massage a mix of Carrot Seed and Rosehip carrier oil at a 0.5 - 1% dilution.
• Add Age Defy Synergy Blend to your beauty routine. From a cellular level, Age Defy reduces inflammation while it sustains smoother, more radiant skin. To help smooth your skin, try our Face Toner DIY.