Getting A Good Nights Sleep Will Keep Your Acne Away

Have you noticed that when you don't get enough sleep it shows in the health of your skin? Sleeping is the time when, exhausted from daily stress and effort, our bodies replenish their resources and repair the tissues. All the cells enter in a low activity state and begin recovering their fuel deposits, removing waste products, remodeling and growing. This is why it is so important to have a high quality night's rest.

The skin is no exception. Its vitality and health largely depend on repairing and housekeeping processes that take place in the skin tissue while we sleep. New collagen fibers are continually fabricated and the old ones are replaced. Blood vessels dilate during the night to bring more oxygen and nutrients to the skin cells. Lots of other important processes take place during the night. How can sleeping disorders affect the health of the skin and make a difference in dealing with acne?

What are the most common sleep disorders?

Insomnia, sleep apnea, restless legs syndrome and sleepwalking are among the most common sleep disorders, the first two of which are largely represented in the general population.

It is estimated that up to 30% of people suffer from insomnia at some point in their lifetime, and up to 24% (mostly men) suffer from some form of sleep apnea.

Insomnia is the difficulty of falling asleep. Its symptoms include daytime sleepiness, fatigue and depression. Sleep apnea is most often caused by obstruction of airways during night's sleep, leading to lower oxygen intake. Its symptoms are snoring, fatigue, daytime sleepiness, irritability, moodiness, lack of concentration and productivity and decrease of short-term memory. Some scientific research suggests that brain damage may occur if sleep apnea is left untreated, due to permanent lack of oxygen to the brain.

As you can see these conditions greatly affect the sleep quality and the repair processes that also take place in our skin. It is even more important in people who have acne, as it is vital for their skin health to maintain a balance between destruction of skin cells by environmental factors and the replenishing processes that take place during sleep.

How is acne influenced by sleep quality and how can you improve it?

Acne is caused mainly by three factors. Those are heredity (genetic map), hormonal imbalances and the plugging of skin ducts. The first one is hard to influence until further advances in medical biotechnology. The third factor is largely controlled by using the appropriate skin care products recommended by a dermatologist. The second is the one that might be managed by improving the quality of sleep.

Some hormones that are involved in the skin metabolism and remodeling don't have a constant rate of production. Their secretion into the bloodstream is greatly influenced by the time of the day and by the human biorhythm. If sleep quality is disturbed by a sleeping disorder, depression, anxiety or chronic stress, the production of these hormones (estrogen, testosterone, cortisol and others) is altered and the biorhythm is changed. This can lead to accumulation of fatty deposits in the skin and cause acne.

Besides getting a good night's sleep, a healthy diet and regular exercise also greatly increase your chances to emerge on the winning side in your confrontation with acne. It is actually the combination of these three that is most likely to yield the best results, along with the therapy recommended by a dermatologist.

So try to make sure you get a high-quality rest during the night. That will help you maintain your skin in good health and your spirit always uplifted.

Joel Mark is an online author who is passionate about basketball, weight training & fitness. When he's not outside exercising, he studies a lot about health and nutrition, which runs the gamut from avoid sleep apnea masks to nutrition.