The power of a good night’s sleep has long been touted as a super skincare must-do, and we all know how a late night can quickly show on our face.
But what is it about night time that makes it a prime time for improving the health of our skin?
We spoke to Maggie Lee, a senior scientist at the Procter & Gamble Singapore Innovation Centre – the team behind Olay Regenerist – about the science of why we need to get our beauty sleep and how the body’s biological clock covers our skin as well.
What happens to our skin while we sleep?
“Skin can tell the difference between night and day, and it responds and changes accordingly. Olay’s recent Multi-Decade and Ethnicity study conducted with Harvard Medical School uncovered that there are key enzymes that are more active during the night for skin renewal and repair compared to during the day. When we get older, that rhythm is still there, but the skin’s level of repair and renewal at night doesn’t get as high as it used to when it was younger.”
Why don’t these enzymes work as well during the day?
“During the day skin is busy fighting external stressors. Sun exposure or psychological stress can impact our skin and weaken our skin barriers. Air conditioning can be very dry to the skin. A relatively new area of research is the impact of pollution on the skin. A new area we looked at is how diet can impact our skin, we know that sugar in our diet can damage the collagen in our skin as well. Most of these take place during the day.”
Do we need to do anything differently in our skin care regime from day to night?
“The key difference between day and night skin care is that during the night, your body is lacking hydration as you are spending prolonged periods of time without drinking any water. We have designed the Olay Regenerist Micro-Sculpting Night Cream with a unique gel-like formula that enhances skin renewal and helps prevent trans-epidermal water loss while you sleep, helping your skin stay hydrated through the night so it can focus on repairing itself.”
Why is a night time beauty routine important?
“Night time is the ultimate time for skin recovery. That’s why it’s important that we have a ritual, a regimen that helps our skin recover during the night. Simply because it’s a little more difficult for your skin to recover while it’s fighting the fires during the day. It’s when the fires die down and it’s important that skin gets supportive care to maximize recovery.”
What happens to our skin if we don’t get enough sleep?
“It’s not just a products that you put on your skin that are important part of night time beauty routine – it’s also what you do. Scientists based at Procter & Gamble Singapore Innovation Centre studied how sleep deprivation affects skin. They observed that the skin’s barrier weakens and water loss increases after one night of sleep deprivation, which means their skin was losing water more rapidly. Even though study participants were allowed to sleep normally after, their water loss remained high, meaning that it takes several days for skin to recover from sleep deprivation of only one night. Prolonged sleep deprivation leads to more visible and permanent skin concerns.”
Why is Olay Regenerist a good choice to help avoid this?
“Olay scientists spent decades studying the skin and researching anti-ageing ingredients that would allow women to harness the power of their skin natural rhythm to get the best results. This is why Olay Regenerist range is formulated with a number of active ingredients. We have niacinamide, which boosts skin’s energy. We have Pal-KTTKS which came from wound healing research, that helps to restore collagen. Olive-M behaves like an antioxidant, and also improves the penetration of other ingredients and helps protect skin against the effects of pollution. And this last one, lyslastine, which is from dill the herb, which can help improve skin’s elasticity, all combined with Hyaluronic Acid and Glycerol to keep skin plump and firm.”
How quickly can we see a change in our skin with a new routine?
“Our studies show us that when you combine the Olay Regenerist Miracle Boost Pre-essence with the Olay Regenerist Micro-sculpting Cream and Micro-sculpting night cream, skin cell renewal accelerates by 60 per cent in just five days of usage. With regular use, skin can look up to 10 years younger.”
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