We consistently see about a 2-fold difference in wound healing speed between the body clock's day and night. It may be that our bodies have evolved to heal fastest during the day when injuries are more likely to occur.
Now, a new study suggests that timing also matters. Skin cells that help patch up wounds work more quickly in the daytime than they do at night, thanks to the workings of our circadian clock. The finding suggests patients might recover from injury more quickly if they have surgery during the right time of day.
Wounds heal more quickly if they occur during the day rather than after dark, a study suggests. It found burns sustained at night took an average of 28 days to heal, but just 17 for those that happened in daytime.
During the deepest phases of sleep, blood flow to muscles increases. Since blood carries oxygen and nutrients, this helps the muscles heal. In many cases, cells are regenerated by this increased flow of blood.
Sleep Helps Wounds Heal Faster
– Wounds Heal when healthy tissue is formed. The growth of tissues and proliferation occurs at the 3rd & 4th stages of sleep, which means the patient has completed 70% of the rest. Hence, more the uninterrupted sleep faster the tissue growth.
Contrary to folk wisdom, wounds need moisture — not air — to heal. Leaving a wound uncovered can slow down the healing process.
This is consistent with other research showing that sleep deprivation slows the healing process. Sleep has a powerful effect on the immune system, so it's not just wound healing, but all forms of recovery from illness, injury, and disease that are affected by sleep.
The researchers found a key reason for this faster healing was that skin cells moved to the site of the wound to repair it much faster during the body clock's daytime. Within the cells, this was driven by the increased activity of proteins involved in cell movement and repair, especially the protein actin.
As you fall into the deeper stages of sleep, your muscles will see an increase in blood flow, which brings along oxygen and nutrients that that help recover and repair muscles and regenerate cells. Hormones play a role, too.
Wounds heal faster if they are kept warm. Try to be quick when changing dressings. Exposing a wound to the open air can drop its temperature and may slow healing for a few hours. Don't use antiseptic creams, washes or sprays on a chronic wound.
Don't clean your wound with soap or chemicals.
Don't use alcohol, hydrogen peroxide or plain soap on your wound. They can be harmful to healing skin and can slow the healing process. Instead, only clean your wound with salt water, sterile water or distilled water.
Which Part of the Body Heals the Fastest? Muscles and tendons generally heal the fastest. These parts of the body recover more quickly thanks to an ample blood supply. The circulatory system provides muscles with plenty of nutrients and oxygen needed for healing.
Fibrous connective tissues like ligaments and tendons as well as bones, cartilage, and nerves tend to take the longest to heal.
Between roughly 2:00 am and 6:00 am the body will go through a process of psychological repair. A disrupted sleep pattern will cause the Cortisol to elevate and negatively affect the regenerative process. So it is imperative that we get to bed around 10:00 to 11:00 pm and up between 6:00 to 7:00 am.
Wounds generally heal in 4 to 6 weeks. Chronic wounds are those that fail to heal within this timeframe. Many factors can lead to impaired healing. The primary factors are hypoxia, bacterial colonization, ischemia, reperfusion injury, altered cellular response, and collagen synthesis defects.
New research also has suggested that pain may follow a circadian rhythm like the body's internal 24-clock that regulates our sleep-wake cycle. "This helps explain why some people regularly have higher pain levels at certain times, such as during the night," says Slawsby.
During the healing process, your body's red blood cells carry new cells to the site to begin rebuilding tissue. Poor blood circulation can slow down this process, making the wound that much longer to heal. Chronic conditions, such as diabetes and obesity, can cause poor blood circulation.
Bony stress injuries can feel worse at night due to increased inflammatory processes happening at night. This process is important to bring necessary cells to the affected site for growth and remodelling or healing to occur.
Wounds need to be covered so that they can heal properly. When a wound is left uncovered, the new surface cells that are being created can easily dry out. When these important cells dry out, it tends to slow down the healing process. A wound should be covered using a clean bandage.
The Sleep Cycle
“All day, skin works hard to protect itself from constant attack, but while we're sleeping skin switches into 'recovery mode,' a time of intense repair and regeneration,” explains Flockhart. “In fact, at this time, the regeneration process can be up to three times faster than during the day,” she adds.
There is a peak time for skin cell renewal.
Between the hours of 11pm-midnight, the process of cell mitosis of the skin is at its peak. Cell mitosis is the cell division that occurs in order to renew and repair skin – whether you're asleep or not.
This is important because it is yet another key observation that sleep reduces inflammation and, conversely, that sleep interruption increases inflammation,” says lead author Filip Swirski, PhD, Director of the Cardiovascular Research Institute at Icahn Mount Sinai.
While you may generally feel weak for a couple of days after your injury or surgery, you should feel better day-by-day, especially with medication and rest. But if you suddenly feel very exhausted, you might want to have your wound checked by a doctor to see if it's infected.
If there are muscles in need of healing, the brain triggers a rush of hormones that promote tissue growth that repairs the blood vessels when you sleep. This process helps ease muscle soreness, rebuild damaged muscles, and encourage wounds to heal properly.