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Anti-aging and ‘shut eye’ – can we get it right?
Sleep, or the lack thereof, and its impact on skin aging was a hot topic in 2013, not to mention the focus of some serious studies and fun surveys.
What was billed as “a first-of-its-kind clinical trial,” Esteé Lauder commissioned a study conducted at University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio. The study found that poor quality sleepers showed increased signs of intrinsic skin aging including fine lines, uneven pigmentation, slackening of skin and reduced elasticity.
Allure Magazine’s Aging Survey told us what we already knew and what we hope is true:
- George Clooney is aging well
- Sex gets better with age
- 36% of millennial guys agree that "cougars are hot” and
- 42% of women would consider anti-aging injections or plastic surgery.
But it’s the popular tanning brand St. Tropez survey of British women that gets our vote for the most precise result: women look their oldest at 3:30 p.m. every Wednesday. While there’s a few contributing factors, one of them is a bad night’s sleep on Monday. According to the report the effects of lack of sleep can take 48 hours to show on the face.
So what’s the take away? If we get too little sleep, our skin cells’ ability to rejuvenate is impeded. If we get too much sleep, our skin looks puffy and older.
Like Goldilocks, is there any way to get it “just right,” or is the perfect sleep to help ward off the appearance of aging just a fairy tale? We like to think there is a way to come close.