We all know the face of a bad week. It turns up in the mirror after three late nights, a looming deadline and too many coffees standing in for lunch, looking a little grey around the edges and faintly puffy under the eyes. Nobody needs a study to tell them that sleep and stress show on the skin. The studies are worth reading anyway, because they explain why, and they make a surprisingly good case for being kinder to yourself.
Sleep
In 2013, researchers at the Karolinska Institute photographed the same volunteers twice, once after a normal night's sleep and once after being kept awake. Strangers rating the photographs found the sleep-deprived faces paler, more drawn and noticeably more tired-looking, with hanging eyelids and darker circles. That much you might have guessed. A study from Cleveland went further, comparing women who slept well with women who slept poorly. The poor sleepers showed more signs of skin ageing, and when their skin was gently stressed, its barrier took longer to recover.
Sleep is when your body turns its attention to repair, and your skin is part of that night shift. Seven to nine hours, in a dark room, at roughly the same time each night, is about the most generous thing you can do for it.
Stress
One of my favourite studies was done on students. Researchers measured how quickly the skin barrier recovered after a mild disruption, first during a calm stretch of the year and again during exams. Under exam stress, the barrier was markedly slower to repair. Stress hormones, it seems, divert resources away from the steady housekeeping that keeps skin comfortable, which is why reactive skin so often flares in the weeks you least have time for it.
I can't make your inbox shorter, but I can suggest small things that genuinely help: a walk in daylight, a few slow breaths before bed, a meal eaten sitting down. They sound almost too ordinary to matter. Your nervous system disagrees.
Water
Drinking more water is one of those pieces of advice repeated so often it has lost all meaning, so it's pleasing to find some evidence for it. A Portuguese study found that adding around two litres of water a day improved measures of skin hydration, especially in people who usually drank little. Water won't undo a damaged barrier on its own, because skin loses moisture from the outside as well as gaining it from within, but if you're running on tea and good intentions, a full glass is an easy start.
A little gentle massage
Gua sha, facial massage and dry brushing are lovely rituals, and there is some modest research behind the idea that they increase circulation. A small German pilot study found gua sha raised blood flow in the treated skin for several minutes afterwards. I wouldn't promise it will sculpt your cheekbones, but a few unhurried minutes of massage at night, with a little balm to help your fingers glide, is a very pleasant way to end the day, and pleasant habits are the ones we keep.
Where skincare fits
Habits do the deep work. What you put on your skin each night decides how comfortable it feels in the meantime. I press a little of the Earth Tallow Balm onto damp skin before bed, and on stressful weeks it is as much a moment of calm as it is skincare. If you'd like to understand the inside story too, I've written about the gut-skin connection.
Ayla, holistic health coach and founder of DAEAR
This article is general information only and is not medical advice. If you are struggling with sleep, stress or anxiety, please reach out to your GP, who can help you find the right support.
Research referred to
- Sundelin T et al. Cues of fatigue: effects of sleep deprivation on facial appearance. Sleep. 2013;36(9):1355-1360.
- Oyetakin-White P et al. Does poor sleep quality affect skin ageing? Clinical and Experimental Dermatology. 2015;40(1):17-22.
- Garg A et al. Psychological stress perturbs epidermal permeability barrier homeostasis. Archives of Dermatology. 2001;137(1):53-59.
- Palma L et al. Dietary water affects human skin hydration and biomechanics. Clinical, Cosmetic and Investigational Dermatology. 2015;8:413-421.
- Nielsen A et al. The effect of Gua Sha treatment on the microcirculation of surface tissue: a pilot study in healthy subjects. Explore. 2007;3(5):456-466.