Sleeping on your back is considered the best sleep position for healthy skin. When you sleep on your back, your face is not pressed against a pillow, which can help prevent wrinkles and acne caused by the friction and pressure of the pillow.
Changing your sleeping position may help prevent acne. Train yourself to sleep on your back, so that your face does not come in contact with the pillowcase. Position the pillows around you in such a way that they stop you from rolling over on your side or front.
Regularly washing your pillow case as well as sleeping on your back can help eliminate acne caused during sleep. Specifically sleeping on your back can keep pores open and refreshed, preventing angry breakouts and flare-ups the next day.
As when we sleep, our skin needs to breathe. This position pushes the whole face into the pillow, which obstructs the skin's follicles. This causes clogged pores, acne, and lines. We don't allow enough circulation in this position, the pressure also causes puffy eyes and under eye bags.
If you try to sleep on your back for at least part of the night, it helps in preventing, or minimising, the lines and creases throughout the face that can become deeper over time, and helps keep symmetry. Many of the world's models and actresses are known to sleep on their backs to help maintain their famous looks.
Sleeping on your back
According to Dr. Vasyukevic, the supine position is the best position all around for prolonging youthful skin. Not only does it prevent wrinkles due to the lack of wrinkle-inducing friction, it also stops the skin from feeling the pressure of your face "folding" into the pillow.
Specifically, sleeping on the side or back is considered more beneficial than sleeping on the stomach. In either of these sleep positions, it's easier to keep your spine supported and balanced, which relieves pressure on the spinal tissues and enables your muscles to relax and recover.
An old pillow accumulates dirt, dust and oil from your face which can lead to break outs. For a small group of people with very sensitive skin this might be due to the material used, but in most cases, it is probably a case of acne mechanica.
This is thanks to your body's circadian rhythm (sleep-wake cycle) which helps your skin move from protect and hydrate mode to repair and reset mode. To learn more about your skin at night and how to help repair it, head here.
Sudden acne breakouts can be because of numerous reasons, including hormonal changes or hormonal imbalance, an unhealthy diet including lots of deep fried and junk food, release of cortisol hormones because of excessive stress, excessive production of sebum and much more.
“Regular body washes aren't strong enough to help with body acne,” warns Yoram Harth, MD, a dermatologist and medical director of MDacne in San Francisco. “To have a real effect, you need a medicated body cleanser, preferably with ingredients like salicylic acid that can unclog your skin pores and kill acne bacteria.”
Your skin looks better in the morning as your body has spent the sleep time repairing and renewing your skin cells. Your skin is also slightly thicker in the morning and fluid has returned to your face, meaning fine lines and wrinkles look less pronounced.
Stress pimples will usually pop up in the oiliest areas of the face, like the forehead, nose and chin. Your T-zone might look greasier and more congested too. Doctors say that if you're getting clusters of pimples all at once, stress can be a factor—hormonal pimples happen one at a time.
“A cotton pillowcase can irritate acne-prone skin unless you're washing or changing the pillowcase every couple of days,” said VanHoose. It can exacerbate existing acne and even make new acne outbreaks more likely.
There's a reason why many dermatologists recommend silk pillowcases. Not only is the material naturally hypoallergenic, which can keep irritation at bay, but it also has a silky smooth texture that's no match for the troublesome friction other materials might cause.
Water has many ways in which it can improve your skin, which helps to improve your acne over time. Drinking water has both direct and indirect benefits for treating acne. Firstly, with bacterial acne, water helps to remove toxins and bacteria on the skin, reducing the potential for pore-clogging in the process.
The same study showed that just “staying up late can cause an increase in the activity of androgen hormones, [which] causes an increase in sebum production, causing the skin to be more oily,” potentially leading to the development of acne.
Most pimples take 1-2 weeks to go away on their own. Some can take up to 6 weeks. Although they can't be cured overnight, they can be treated with many different methods that have been proven to work such as prescription acne treatments like tretinoin gel and topical antibiotics like clindamycin lotion.
Research reveals more women prefer to sleep on the left side of the bed than the right - and the reason why is super cute.
Cons: Sleeping on the left side can put pressure on the stomach and lungs, and affect blood flow, so it is best to switch it up… or you may experience numbness in your arms from resting on one for too long.