Sleep For Beauty, Body, Brain

1. Sleep for Beauty

There's a reason it's called beauty sleep! Good sleep is nature's most powerful beauty treatment. And it's FREE! Aaaaaand you can do it in your own home! Skipping sleep is bad for your skin, because when you're tired blood doesn't flow efficiently. As you sleep your body produces human growth hormone, which is vital for collagen production. Skin cell rejuvenation almost doubles at night

According to a study in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology (2001):"women deprived of sleep have a disturbed skin-barrier function, greater water loss from the skin and a far higher level of inflammatory chemicals in circulation. Over time, these inflammatory chemicals take a toll on both the outer epidermal layers and the deeper dermal structures."

In short, a lack of sleep is going to make you look older!

2. Sleep for Body

Your body needs sleep in order to properly recover, recharge, rebuild and renew. This is serious stuff because sleep deprivation has been closely linked by numerous medical bodies to a vast range of serious illnesses from obesity, to heart disease and even to cancer. Check out the infographic below by Health Central.

Good quality sleep will also significantly improve sporting performance and the efficiency of your physical activities.

3. Sleep for Brain

Sleep is vital to the health of your brain. First and foremost think of your mood. Consider how you feel when you're well-rested, versus how you feel when you're sleep deprived?

This goes deeper, however, as lack of sleep has been linked as a contributing factor to mental health issues like Bipolar Disorder, Depression, Anxiety and ADHD.

To quote a research paper from Harvard Medical School: "Although scientists are still trying to tease apart all the mechanisms, they've discovered that sleep disruption — which affects levels of neurotransmitters and stress hormones, among other things — wreaks havoc in the brain, impairing thinking and emotional regulation. In this way, insomnia may amplify the effects of psychiatric disorders, and vice versa."