The Science of Beauty Sleep: How Quality Sleep Benefits The Skin

Beauty sleep isn’t just a turn of phrase—it’s a nod to the remarkable regenerative processes that reach their peak during sleep. As the body drifts off, skin cells kick into high gear, working to neutralize the stress of the day and repair damaged tissue. Top-quality sleep night after night can result in healthier, more radiant skin by morning. But, for those who struggle to keep a consistent sleep schedule, those lost hours of rest can start to show in the skin. 

Read on to discover how sleep optimization can enhance the benefits of your clients’ nightly skincare routines and go hand-in-hand with rejuvenating treatments like red light therapy. 

The Science Behind Beauty Sleep: What Happens to the Skin During Sleep?

Skin behaves differently at night than during the day, creating a prime environment for healing and regeneration. This comes down to the skin’s circadian clock genes, which help regulate the body’s internal clock and sleep-wake cycle. Crucial aspects of skin health are affected by the circadian rhythm, including:

• Transepidermal water loss, a key measure of skin barrier function, tends to increase at night. 
  

• • Our Omnilux Solution: Water loss is no match for our quenching Hyaluronic Acid Serum. Add it to clients’ nightly skincare routines to offset transepidermal water loss while they sleep.
    

• Skin permeability: While skin loses more water at night, it’s also more permeable, allowing substances (like nourishing skincare products) to more effectively move through it in the evening. This makes nightly beauty routines an unmatched opportunity for your clients to work toward their skin goals. 
  

• Collagen production: The body releases more growth hormone at night, stimulating collagen production for plumper, firmer, and rejuvenated skin. 
  

• • Our Omnilux Solution: Omnilux Contour Face and Omnilux Men red light therapy devices are clinically proven to ramp up collagen production, making them excellent additions to nighttime regimens for maximum benefits. 
    

• Keratinocyte production: The body produces more keratinocytes, which play a significant role in skin healing, at night. 
  

• Blood flow to the skin increases during sleep, boosting the skin’s supply of oxygen and vital nutrients. 
  

• Cortisol: The body releases less cortisol, the primary stress hormone, during sleep. This decrease calms inflammation and facilitates healing throughout the night. 

These circadian variations mean skin repairs and regenerates damaged cells more effectively at night than during the day. It also means that skin is more receptive to treatments, like red light therapy, during the evening hours. 

Along with regular in-office red light therapy treatments, adding an at-home RLT device to your clients’ regimens can amplify the benefits of their beauty sleep. These FDA-cleared devices stimulate collagen production to smooth wrinkles, enhance skin firmness, and help reduce visible signs of sun damage. Just 10 minutes of use before applying topical products will prime the skin for healing, making your clients’ sleep even more regenerative.

We recommend following up red light therapy sessions with plenty of hydration to combat increased transdermal water loss. Products like our Hyaluronic Acid Serum help skin attract and retain moisture, while our CoQ10 Face Cream has a nutrient-rich formula designed specifically for post-LED light therapy use. Nightly transdermal water loss only accelerates with age, making a hydrating nighttime skincare routine crucial throughout adulthood. 

How Poor Sleep Impacts The Skin

Sometimes, life gets in the way of getting seven to nine hours of nightly beauty sleep. Whether due to stress, work obligations, travel, or sleep conditions like insomnia, chronic poor sleep sabotages skin health over time. 

Consistently poor sleep is linked to accelerated skin aging and diminished skin barrier function. It robs skin of the chance to repair damaged cells, making wrinkles, dark under-eyes, discoloration, and dullness more prominent. 

• Our Omnilux Solution: Calm under-eye stress with our targeted Eye Brightener, a mini red light device made specifically to treat fine lines & wrinkles, and puffy under-eyes, and Antioxidant Eye Cream, a nourishing, antioxidant-rich topical to help hydrate, soften, and brighten dark circles.

Additionally, sleep deprivation contributes to elevated cortisol levels. This increases skin redness, swelling, and irritation. High cortisol levels can even accelerate oil production, increasing the risk of clogged pores and acne breakouts. 

Enhancing Beauty Sleep with a Restorative Nightly Routine

Considering the impact of sleep on skin health and radiance, a restorative nightly routine can serve as a cornerstone of any holistic skin treatment plan. As part of this routine, promoting natural melatonin production can help clients reach a calm, sleep-ready mindset. 

Melatonin is critical to regulating the brain’s sleep-wake cycle, creating a feeling of sleepiness and promoting healthy sleep duration. Aging, light exposure, and nighttime work shifts can all compromise melatonin production, increasing the risk of poor sleep quality and, over time, worsened skin health. 

Limiting blue light exposure is a crucial first step to generating healthy melatonin levels. This comes down to clients’ sleep hygiene—avoiding smartphone, computer, and TV use two to three hours before bedtime is an important habit to adopt, especially for those who struggle to fall asleep. Aside from its negative impact on melatonin production, blue light can accelerate skin aging and general skin damage. 

Red light, on the other hand, doesn’t upset sleep cycles like bright blue light. It’s more neutral than blue light, so it doesn’t signal to the brain that it should stay awake. On the contrary, red light therapy can support and enhance the body’s natural melatonin production, leading to improved sleep quality and duration. This makes Omnilux red light therapy an excellent option to enhance your clients’ nightly skincare routines, whether they’re looking to smooth wrinkles, reduce photoaging, or improve overall radiance. 

Round out your clients’ beauty sleep routines with these key tips:

• Incorporate red light LED treatments into their nightly routine to support melatonin production, promote enhanced sleep quality and duration, and compound the benefits of the skin’s regenerative processes during sleep. 

• Switch to silk pillowcases (and keep them clean) to minimize friction, creasing, and bacterial buildup. 

• Aim to sleep on your back to reduce gravity’s pull on the skin.

• Consider using a sound machine or listening to binaural beats to deepen feelings of relaxation and sleepiness.  

A healthy lifestyle is essential to protect and augment the results of in-office aesthetic treatments. While other habits, like diet, often take the spotlight, sleep is critically important to repair existing damage and stall skin aging. By encouraging proper sleep hygiene and skin-forward nightly rituals, providers can improve their clients’ satisfaction with ongoing aesthetic treatments.