The key is to get enough shut-eye -- 7 to 9 quality hours each night. If you're getting fewer than 6 hours, it's likely affecting your appearance, says Michael Breus, PhD, a board-certified sleep specialist. Start getting 1 to 3 more hours of Zzz's, and you could see some improvement in as little as a day.
Sleeping on your back
According to Dr. Vasyukevic, the supine position is the best position all around for prolonging youthful skin. Not only does it prevent wrinkles due to the lack of wrinkle-inducing friction, it also stops the skin from feeling the pressure of your face "folding" into the pillow.
Sleeping on your back is considered the best sleep position for healthy skin. When you sleep on your back, your face is not pressed against a pillow, which can help prevent wrinkles and acne caused by the friction and pressure of the pillow.
Results show that the faces of sleep-deprived individuals were perceived as having more hanging eyelids, redder eyes, more swollen eyes and darker circles under the eyes. Sleep deprivation also was associated with paler skin, more wrinkles or fine lines, and more droopy corners of the mouth.
Skin makes new collagen when you sleep, which prevents sagging. “That's part of the repair process,” says Patricia Wexler, MD, a dermatologist in New York. More collagen means skin is plumper and less likely to wrinkle. Only getting 5 hours a night can lead to twice as many fine lines as sleeping 7 would.
Going a night with little to no sleep can also decrease production of growth hormone, which helps to maintain the process of skin's tissue repair, as well. Skin repairs itself as we sleep to maintain its youthful appearance. If you don't sleep well at night, you may find yourself looking “older” in the morning.
Will sleep wrinkles go away? For the most part, when you wake up, those lines and wrinkles that you notice (which we often consider to be the sign of a good night's rest) will start to go away as you go about your morning routine.
Most people find that aging causes them to have a harder time falling asleep. They wake up more often during the night and earlier in the morning. Total sleep time stays the same or is slightly decreased (6.5 to 7 hours per night). It may be harder to fall asleep and you may spend more total time in bed.
Sleep and Aging
Older adults need about the same amount of sleep as all adults—7 to 9 hours each night.
If you try to sleep on your back for at least part of the night, it helps in preventing, or minimising, the lines and creases throughout the face that can become deeper over time, and helps keep symmetry.
Your facial structure gets pressed against pillow every night for 8 hours—that's a lot of pressure for your skin. Eventually, this position can make your face flatter and trigger wrinkles.
Sleeping without a pillow can help some people who sleep on their stomach, but it is not a good idea for everyone. People who sleep on their side or back will usually find that sleeping without a pillow puts pressure on their neck. By doing this, it can ruin a person's quality of sleep and lead to neck and back pain.
Drinking enough water each day replenishes your skin's tissue and cells, allowing for younger and healthier looking skin. Another key to maintaining a youthful appearance is to simply get some rest! When you sleep, your body continuously releases hormones that promote cell turnover and renewal.
Traditionally, the “elderly” are considered to be those persons age 65 and older.
However, most people start experiencing a decline in their energy levels by the time they reach their mid-thirties. And this decline in energy levels can be attributed to various factors, including changes in metabolism, hormonal changes, and lifestyle factors such as diet, exercise, and stress.
Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn explains the phenomenon of apparent aging that happens overnight. When a person experiences a massively stressful event, they can appear to have aged several years. This is a direct result of the cells not being able to rejuvenate properly.
Depending on these factors, wrinkles generally begin to appear in the late 30's and 40's. Sleep wrinkles often are first noticed as a diagonal line at the junction of the outer eyelid and cheekbone (different from the more horizontal “crow's-feet” expression lines).
Skin Aging
As you grow older, the tissues and muscles by your eye area weaken, so they sag a bit, making you look a bit sleepy. As you mature, our skin's elasticity weakens. Fats and fluids in the eye area can accumulate in your lower eyelids, making them look plumper, and in turn, a lot puffier.