Sleep deprivation can surface throughout your day in little ways like...
🤷🏻♀️ Forgetfulness – walking into rooms and saying, “What did I come in here for again?”
🤦🏻♀️ Lack of focus – reading (and rereading) your friend’s text trying to understand their meaning.
🙅🏻♀️ Outsized reactions – even the pitch of your partner’s voice can irk you more than usual!
Minor disturbances like these are nothing to lose sleep over (excuse the pun!), but chronic sleep problems can lead to hair-related health issues down the road – specifically, hair loss, hair breakage, and hair thinning.
In this blog post, I want to help you see the connections between sleep and the health of your hair, so you can prioritize getting your Zs in!
The subtle links between sleep deprivation and hair loss
Current scientific studies don’t directly link a lack of sleep with hair loss, but, when you take a closer look at how sleep affects the body, three clear connections surface which affect how hair grows:
- Stress
- Immune function
- Cell regeneration process
Let's dive deeper into each so you can see how they are connected.
1. Sleep loss = stress = hair loss
Stress is one of the biggest culprits behind hair loss. When you don’t get enough sleep, your body is naturally under more stress.
Over time, this chronic, sleep-related stress on your body can trigger telogen effluvium, a stress-induced type of hair loss.
In short, telogen effluvium shortens the length of time your hair spends in its natural growth phase, and increases the length of time your hair spends in its resting/shedding phase.
2. Sleep loss = compromised immunity = hair breakage
According to the National Library of Medicine, lack of sleep can hinder your immune system functioning, leaving you more susceptible to germs.
But how does that connect to hair health?
When you're sick, your body is under stress as it's battling off bugs.
That means your body is prioritizing healing itself, and so, it will skip sending essential nutrients to your hair in the process.
3. Sleep loss = hindered cell repair = hair thinning
When you're sleeping, your body switches over to a natural cellular regeneration cycle.
This cycle triggers the repairing and building of new proteins and tissues, and it also sends signals for your body to release hormones (like the hair-growth-promoting hormone, melatonin).
This process is part of a delicate system, and so, chronic sleep deprivation may stop your body from entering into this restorative cycle.
That means your hair's cellular structure (i.e., integrity) can suffer – making it thinner in texture and duller in appearance.
Tips for better, deeper sleep
Now that you can see the connections between sleep and your hair health, I want to walk you through the steps I take to get the best sleeps possible!
Optimize your sleep environment
Invest in a good mattress, supportive pillow (with a frizz-reducing silk pillowcase), and blackout blinds. Turn down the temperature at night, or switch on a fan to help keep you cool.
Avoid blue light
Try to limit your use of electronic devices like phones, laptops – even smart watches – to help avoid that infamous blue light that can mess with your circadian rhythm. This one may cause a fight, but ideally, remove all electronics from your bedroom – namely, the television!
Treat your body gently
Stop drinking caffeine after lunch, avoid alcohol or exercise at least two hours before bed, and take a warm bath or shower to relax. Practice some deep breathing and/or gentle yoga/meditation to help alleviate stress. Lastly, consider taking a natural sleep aid – like Beauty Sleep Complex.
Beauty Sleep Complex – Non-habit-forming natural sleep aid
You deserve to feel refreshed every morning – not fighting to fall asleep each night.
That's where Beauty Sleep Complex – a gentle sleep aid formulated with all natural ingredients – comes in.
Beauty Sleep Complex helps you naturally fall into deep, uninterrupted sleep, so you can feel refreshed and fully awake each morning!
Beauty Sleep Complex Ingredients
Sweet dreams, beauty!
xoxo
Kaley
