Is lack of sleep and change in diet during Ramadan affecting the health of your hair and skin? Here’s help.

To ensure the health of your hair and skin does not suffer during Ramadan, Sarah-Jane Corfield Smith suggests a few tweaks to your beauty routine

Whilst we know that Ramadan is not about focusing on beautifying yourself, the process of fasting during daylight hours for 30 days and then shifting your eating patterns to fit in can have an impact on your hair and skin. Friday speaks to experts to find out about the simple tweaks you can make to your regime during this special time.

During Ramadan your normal bed time and wake up call shift to fall in line with sun set and sun rise. And this affects your sleep, but not just any kind of sleep. We are talking about your beauty sleep. There is a very good reason why the phrase ‘beauty sleep’ exists and it’s not because it sounds cute. It’s because when we are sleeping and our body is at rest, our skin gets to work on repairing itself from the damage its been exposed to during the day, such as UV rays, pollution, screen time and diet. Or during Ramadan the fact that it hasn’t been fuelled by any fluids or food. Meaning that when we wake up our skin should look better than when we went to sleep, especially if it’s been boosted by the right skincare ingredients to make skin cells work even more efficiently.

And our skin cells are exceptionally clever things, ‘Our skin is a dynamic organ,’ says UK-based consultant dermatologist, Dr Anjali Mahto, who is also the author of The Skincare Bible: Your No-Nonsense Guide to Great Skin.

‘Any change in your usual food, hydration or sleep routine will affect it. Our body has a master clock found in the hypothalamus, a region of the brain. This clock establishes our circadian rhythm, the internal 24-hour cycle coinciding with day and night. Skin cells have their own internal clock in addition to the brain’s master clock. This includes igniting the activity of skin cells such as cells that make collagen (known as fibroblasts) and pigment (melanocytes). These work together and in conjunction with the brain produce rhythmic changes in the skin.’ All this is done at night. Much like your natural circadian rhythm, if it is interrupted it has an adverse effect on our body. Which explains why if we have a bad night’s sleep, we are not able to focus as well the next day. Similarly if your skin cells circadian rhythm is altered, it ‘accelerates the signs of skin ageing,’ explains Mahto.

So during Ramadan it is important to squeeze in as much sleep as possible so that your body gets as near to the amount it’s used to getting over night, but broken up during the day. Try to get to bed as early as you can and return to sleep, if you can, in the morning. Power naps during the day – they only have to be 20 minutes long – can also help power up your skin so that it can work as fast as possible in the shorter sleep you’re getting at night.