Get your beauty sleep
CATS seem to snooze all the time, just about anywhere they please. Not only that, they appear oblivious to the going-ons around them, and sleep ever so soundly, too.
On the other hand, for adults, sleep is a luxury because we constantly have our noses to the grindstone and succumb to a myriad of modern-day distractions.
During the night, sleep progresses in a predictable pattern, moving back and forth between rapid eye movement (REM) and non-rapid eye movement (NREM) cycles until we wake up.
Each sleep cycle, which lasts an average of 90 to 110 minutes, is divided into four stages.
The amount of time you spend in each stage of sleep changes as the night progresses.
For example, deep restorative (NREM) sleep usually occurs in the first half of the night. Later in the night, your REM sleep (alert and dreaming stages) becomes longer.
That is why those of us who don’t sleep soundly throughout tend to wake up in the early hours and not immediately after going to bed.
During the early part of the sleep cycle, your body also experiences a surge in the secretion of growth hormones, which stimulate the growth and rejuvenation of the immune, nervous, skeletal and muscular systems.
Growth hormones are vital to the repair, regeneration and building of muscles, bones and other body tissues.
Studies have shown that skin cells regenerate faster at night than during the day.
Deep sleep (stages three and four) is also called “beauty sleep”, as the body undergoes a renewal and rejuvenation process.
During sleep, the whole body, including the face, perspires more.
Sleep therefore acts as a “natural moisturising treatment” that keeps the skin hydrated and smoother.
Antioxidants such as vitamins C and E also stay active on your skin longer if you apply them at night.
Sleep deprivation contributes to stress, which has detrimental effects on skin.
Chronic stress also retards the body’s ability to repair itself, resulting in poor skin tone and an unhealthy appearance.
This is why we generally look more radiant and feel better when we have sound and adequate sleep.
Don’t sleep on it. – The Straits Times / Asia News Network