How to take care of your skin while you sleep

By Dr Dirk Kremer. 

It is difficult to create a perfect skincare routine; it can often feel like skincare is a full time job. However, the benefits of skincare are amazing, and it’s important to take the time to properly create and stick to a skincare routine. When deciding on your skin care routine, make sure you don’t neglect the time you spend asleep. Did you know that new skin cells grow faster while you’re asleep? It has been scientifically proven that while we sleep, our body has a much higher potential for absorbing and processing skin care products, and skin cell regeneration is increased significantly at night because skin cells are repaired more effectively at night.

Scientific research has concluded that your skin regenerates faster between 11pm and 4am. What’s more, throughout the night, your collagen levels are boosted, while free radicals are destroyed and cell damage is reversed, helping to leave your skin looking healthy.

A night-time skincare routine is essential because at night your skin is able to absorb the active ingredients in skincare products more easily compared to during the day. What’s more, during the night, you won’t be wearing other beauty products such as makeup which can make it hard for the skin to absorb the much-needed ingredients.

With an effective night-time skin care routine, you can make the most of your 8 hours of slumber to give yourself smooth and fresh looking skin. Here are some useful ways you can create an effective night time skin care routine.

Cleanse and remove make-up

Giving your face a cleanse is the ideal way of washing away all your cares and worries while also removing all of the built up dirt and grime that naturally builds up on your face during the day. Removing any make-up from your face before going to sleep is also an absolute must! Dried make-up stuck to your face the following morning will hurt your skin. If you use any topical treatments when cleansing your face, it’s best to use ones that are non-comedogenic, to ensure they don’t clog your pores before you apply moisturising products.

Exfoliate

Exfoliating is a fantastic way of unclogging pores and removing dried and dead skin cells. Of course, you don’t want to exfoliate more than twice/three times a week, or you run the risk of drying out your skin.

As we age, our skin cell regeneration begins to slow down, which means it becomes more difficult to shed old skin cells to be replaced by softer skin cells. This leads to dead skin cells piling up, giving you the appearance of dried skin. This in turn can lead to blemishes and acne as dead skin cells increase the production of excess oil. By exfoliating, you can manually remove dead skin cells and naturally boost your body’s skin cell regeneration.

Here at SkinDoc formula our Skin Smootherator is the perfect exfoliating product. It exfoliates your skin, helping to unclog dirty skin pores by penetrating the pores deeply, while the core ingredient of lactic acid (also known as milk acid) softens the skin to encourage healthy collagen growth. Lactic acid is an effective alpha-hydroxyl acid, which is an exceptional exfoliator and skin softener that doesn’t damage the skin tissue in any way.

Moisturise

You also need to ensure you moisturise at night. During your initial cleanse, you will have washed away essential oils that give your skin moisture, which in turn, can lead to dry skin. By moisturising, you are combating this. What’s more it’s been scientifically proven that those people who moisturise regularly are more likely to develop wrinkles at a lower rate compared to those people who don’t moisturise on a regular basis.

Do you know why you get dry skin? In winter especially, our skin produces less sebum and Hyaluronic acid which means we receive less moisture than usual. The body naturally produces less sebum and hyaluronic acid as we age too, meaning the older we get, the more we have to moisturise to ensure our skin is healthy and hydtrated to promotes a healthy environment in which damaged skin cells can naturally repair and regenerate.

SkinDoc formula offers a range of moisturising products that do wonders for improving skin dryness and raise the moisture level of your skin.

Adding a dab of Nightshift Reloader will make the process much more effective. Nightshift Reloader uses hyaluronic acid (something that no skin care routine can be without thanks to its ability to retain moisture - and no, don’t be scared of the word acid, our bodies naturally produce this sugar-composed molecule) to achieve softer and smoother looking skin by hydrating your skin. Nightshift Reloader provides hydration to the skin, which is essential during the night when the body loses moisture quicker than any other time of the day, while stimulating new cell growth and reducing the appearance of lines and wrinkles.

You can also add to your night-time skin routine by using our Aqualuron which utilises hyaluronic acid to absorb moisture from the air while you sleep to protect your skin and keep it hydrated, which helps protect the skin, and reinforce the skin’s natural cell proliferation. SkinDoc formula’s Aqualuron combines two Hyaluronic molecules with different molecular weights, Hyaluronic Acid: Low & High (LH). The result is an intense moisturising serum, which exploits the unique characteristics and benefits of these two types of Hyaluronic Acid. 

If you are concerned about wrinkles around your eyes, NightWatch could soon be your next best friend. Applied after you’ve moisturised, NightWatch reorganises the dermal architecture around your eyes to enhance skin density and firmness, which leads to wrinkles fading away.

Apply a DNA repair formula

DNA repair formulas are great for skincare as they work deep into the cellular structure to target those parts of cell DNA (Telomeres) which regulate cellular lifespan. They use natural and organic stimulators to stabilise the telomeres and maintain healthy intact DNA. This counteracts any stress which your skin may undergo, improving cell quality and rebalancing cell function.

SkinDoc formula’s Telomere Repair slips effortlessly into your pores and rejuvenates your skin cells’ DNA and as a result tightens and lifts the surface, and fades away blemishes and neutralises discoloured spotting.

Apply Telomere Repair before bedtime every day because it allows the cream to go to work re-stitching your cells while you sleep. You’ll wake up with healthier, more rejuvenated skin and look much younger too!

Apply an overnight mask

There’s only one step left before you’re ready for bed: applying an overnight mask. While it isn’t necessary to keep face masks on overnight, for optimal results, it is more often than not, the best course of action. This is because a soothing face mask opens pores so that the active ingredients you’ve applied through your moisturising can be easily absorbed into your skin.

The same is true of our groundbreaking Cellixir product, which incorporates stem cell anti-oxidant properties. Cellixir uses stem cell technology, which helps stimulate the growth of new cells and collagen production to give smoother-looking skin. What’s more, Cellixir creates a thin and clear mask that while nourishing, is also breathable, so you don’t have to worry about it impairing your sleep! For the best results, apply Cellixir every day before bed and leave overnight.

Add eye cream after putting on your night cream

Eye cream should be part of your evening beauty routine as it protects and hydrates the skin around the eyes. SkinDoc formula’s NightWatch supports the regeneration of your eyes’ skin.

NightWatch acts on the skin’s natural lifting properties, by reorganising the dermal architecture, rapidly enhancing skin density and firmness. This reduces roughness and fades out wrinkles for younger-looking appearance.

It’s important that to actually get some sleep too! Never underestimate the beauty of sleep as it does wonders for our skin and overall health!

For more information about any of the SkinDoc formula products available, don’t hesitate to contact us.