Gotta bit of a grey pallor this morning?
Yes, some days I’ll wake up to a particularly dismal looking dermis myself.
It’s tough to describe – but something’s just off about it. Like one of the post mortem Death Becomes Her chicks who skipped their latest spray job to conceal their decaying faces. This might sound familiar. You wonder if you’re coming down with the flu. If you need a new supplement. If you’re dying from the inside out (my personal favorite and first go-to everytime). And then, obviously, you rush to the Clinique counter for an overpriced lotion that’ll reverse these signs of early onset body rot. But, much like every other symptom in this series, often the answer’s just that I need to spend a few more hours recharging in the evenings.
And here’s why:
All the cells in your body are constantly having to undergo repair and replacement. That’s good and all – but the thing is, the whole process has to happen whenever you shutter your eye blinds for the night. Once you’re zonked, your somatic building blocks get to work. The skin takes advantage of that down time to repair any cells that might be damaged. Which means… rest too little and that process gets hindered significantly. In fact, this one study done in 2013 at University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Ohio (Saint Jesus, that’s a mouthful) demonstrated something interesting about skin recovery. And that’s that folk who made a quality slumber a priority realized a 30% higher integumentary recovery rate. (That’s just a fancy word for “skin”, btw.) And why? Because, as Debra Jaliman, MD, and dermatologist, says: “A lack of sleep upsets your hormonal balance and elevates circulating estrogen levels.” Which we can all agree is never a good thing. Those’ve us who are chicks all know (from our involuntary adventure into insanity every four weeks) that when hormones are oscillating, shiz hits the fan. And your skin looks like it got lathered in the resultant spray.
But we’re all about fixes here.
And since sleep’s a cumulative thing – it might take a bit to rejoov that fleshy, elastic wrap covering the brilliant gift that is you. Which means that, in the meantime, Dr. Ashley has a few prescriptions of her own for you. The first? Copious amounts of water throughout the day (as well as one liter before bed – and one upon waking – which should be seven hours after you were last awake). Also, I’d suggest Yogi tea’s “healthy skin” and “skin detox”. Especially if you’re a toxic cocktail goblin. And, finally, wash off that fkkn foundation before you head to bed. Keeping that shiz on round the clock is like turning your dermis into a nursery for staphylococcus and tucking it in with oil n’ grime each night. It just incubates in your shut pores until morning. Which is when you wake to realize you’ve got a grubby slumber induced lumberjack style beard of zits. It wasn’t cute when you were fifteen. It’s definitely not cute when you’ve got pre-wrinkles forming in the corners of your face. And, indeed, excess wrinkles are a thing you can also look forward to if you’re not snoozing sufficiently. Why? Because our anti-wrinkle properties are concocted while we’re in a state of subconsciousness. In fact, per that same dermatologist who warned us about hormone levels, burning the candle at both ends can really age you: “If done for long periods, you will see that you have excess wrinkling probably from a decrease in collagen. The body produces it while you’re sleeping.”
Which is why all my advice is just a collective yes-and to resting better.
But the point is there’s a cheaper (see: free) solution than a pricey ablution routine.
Try packing in more pillow time for just one week – and see if you don’t look a li’l glowier come next Monday.