Move over suspicious Halloween face paint, there’s a new skin spooky in town: here's a quick Halloween nightmare of how chronic stress and poor sleep can haunt our skin...(evil laugh and fade).
Chronic stress and consistently poor sleep can both trigger something called the HPA (hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal) axis, a trio of glands that respond to stress. This results in an increase in the body’s production of the stress hormones cortisol and catecholamines, which in turn can do the following:
- Slow down our skin’s production of collagen and hyaluronic acid, which in turn can accelerate skin aging.
- Increase the production of oils like sebum, triggering breakouts.
- Slow down our skin’s production of ceramides, thus compromising our delicate skin barrier. When our skin barrier is compromised, we can’t trap moisture as effectively in our skin. This can result in skin feeling and looking dehydrated no matter how much water we drink, or how high-quality our nourishing moisturizer is.
- Slow our wound healing response in the skin, so we heal more slowly after a cut or scrape.
- Redirect our immune cells from the bloodstream into the skin, stimulating skin inflammation.
- Tell mast cells in our skin to release histamine, which further drives skin inflammation and even sensations like being itchy.
So in summary, a lot of stress and a little sleep can result in:
- Dull skin
- Dark under-eyes circles
- Skin dehydration
- Skin barrier disruption (increased transepidermal water loss)
- Reduced skin elasticity
- Increased fine lines and wrinkles
- Droopy corners of the mouth
Studies show that even just 1 to 2 nights of poor sleep can show up on your skin in the above ways. Are you starting to get the sense that beauty sleep is real!?
Enter: clinically-proven Night Mode™ Restorative Sleep + Skin Capsules, which support healthier skin by helping to ease stress, promote calm, and facilitate better sleep†. Night Mode™ is vegan, non-sedating, non-habit forming, and melatonin-free—because no one wants to be haunted by a scary morning hangover. As someone who often has racing thoughts before bed, Night Mode™ has been tremendously helpful for me, and it can do the same for you.†
Even at Halloween time, I love when a spooky story has a happy ending.
