During the day as you're upright, the dermal fluid moves towards your legs, but overnight, when your body is horizontal during sleep, dermal fluid settles back. This swells up your facial skin, reducing the appearance of wrinkles, like pumping water back into a raisin or rehydrating a shriveled, dried sponge.
Do you ever feel your skin looks better in the morning? The reason is often attributed to the fact that your skin gets thicker in the morning, as it prepares to protect against stressors throughout the day. And yet, even at its thickest point, our skin is less than a tenth of an inch thick.
That extra fluid helps to fill out the fine lines, making them less visible.” That's why when you wake up, your skin may look more youthful and firm. However, as the day goes on, and gravity does its thing, fluids are drawn down away from the face taking some suppleness with it.
Water Loss Overnight Makes You Look Slimmer
Any urine you expel first thing in the morning is just another loss of water weight that leads to a slimmer feeling. Some mornings your slimmer feeling will be more evident than on other mornings, mostly because of water retention.
"Our skin is busy repairing itself overnight with increased cell repair and regeneration occurring, so there's truth to 'beauty sleep' and waking up with great skin," she says.
Sleep is the time your body goes into repair mode. While you get some shut-eye, your body flushes out toxins, gets rid of dead skin cells, and creates new healthy ones. The pituitary gland in your brain produces human growth hormone during deep sleep, and this contributes to the repair and maintenance of your skin.
Best Time to Sleep for Skin
While almost everyone knows that around seven to eight hours of sleep is essential for healthy skin, the time of sleep also matters. The best time to sleep for healthy skin is between 9 PM to 11 PM. If you wake up early, hit the bed by around 9-9.30 PM.
This is extremely common, and while there are a number of potential causes, gravity is the main explanation. When we sleep on our backs, the fluids in our body can pool in certain areas, including the facial tissues, causing the space around our eyes to look swollen or puffy.
Fluid retention: When you sleep, your body may retain fluids, which can cause puffiness in the face and eyes. As the day goes on and you move around, your body naturally reduces the amount of fluid it retains, which can lead to a less puffy appearance.
I sought out Melanie Palm, MD, MBA to find out. The answer, to my surprise, is that we should be washing our faces when we awake. “Generally speaking, cosmetic dermatologists recommend that patients cleanse there face twice daily (morning and night),” Palm tells InStyle.
Dry skin: Your body loses moisture at night, which can make your skin itchy. Hormonal changes: At night, your body doesn't produce as many hormones as it does during the day and certain hormones reduce inflammation (swelling). As you have fewer hormones at night, your skin could be itchy.
The faces of sleep deprived individuals were perceived as having more hanging eyelids, redder eyes, more swollen eyes, darker circles under the eyes, paler skin, more wrinkles/fine lines, and more droopy corners of the mouth (effects ranging from b = +3 ± 1 to b = +15 ± 1 mm on 100-mm visual analog scales, P < 0.01).
Crying causes a release of endorphins or feel-good hormones and a reduction in stress hormones like cortisol, which have been linked to breakouts and other skin conditions. Though this may require more research, indications are that occasional bouts of crying can be good for the skin in the long run.
"Beauty sleep" is real. Your skin uses sleep hours to heal itself from the day's damage. When you drift off, your skin gets the chance to improve. That's why you may wake up looking fresh and rosy.
For many people, waking up with a puffy face stems from normal overnight fluid retention — but this may be more noticeable if a person gets too little or too much sleep. Lying down causes fluid to rest and collect in the face, and a person's sleeping position may also exacerbate this.
The camera lens is not the human eye
It's called lens distortion and it can render your nose, eyes, hips, head, chest, thighs and all the rest of it marginally bigger, smaller, wider or narrower than they really are.
Moisturize while skin is damp
Timing and technique matter. Think of a "tired" face like a deflated balloon, a "fresh" face like a round inflated one. If you lightly blot your face and immediately apply your hydrating cream or oil, skin gets plumped up.
Drink a cup of hot water and lemon as soon as you wake up. This will help kick start and aid in your body's natural detoxification process. Applying a cool, damp compress over your face and leaving it for 10 minutes or so will also work. The colder the compress the better so I recommend using ice water.
Drink plenty of water in the evening.
Holistic nutritionist Joy McCarthy recommends drinking at least a liter of water overnight for glowing skin in the morning. “Keep it beside your bed, and if you wake up thirsty, take a couple sips.