Lack of Sleep Can Make You Ugly, New Study Shows

Sharon Moore September 02, 2013

Want to stay beautiful? Get enough ‘beauty sleep’. To look best for an upcoming social gathering or performance, you need not buy expensive creams and beauty treatments. You just need to have at least 8 hours of sleep every night. New research shows that sleep-deprived individuals are ‘uglier’ as they have redder and more swollen eyes, dark under-eye circles, droopier eyelids and more wrinkles than well-rested people.

Sleeplessness affects physical appearance

The study was conducted by a group of researchers at Stockholm University in Sweden. It involved 40 volunteers who looked at photos of 10 people taken after eight hours of sleep and after 31 hours of no sleep. The photographs were rated by the study participants based on fatigue, sadness and facial cues.

Participants had similar reactions on the photos. They find sleep-deprived individuals having paler skin, droopy corners of the mouth, dark circles and wrinkles. They also said these people appeared to be sadder because they looked tired.

"Since faces contain a lot of information on which humans base their interactions with each other, how fatigued a person appears may affect how others behave toward them”, said lead researcher Tina Sundelin, M.Sc., a doctoral student in the department of psychology at the university. "This is relevant not only for private social interactions, but also official ones such as with health care professionals and in public safety."

This small study was published in the journal Sleep.

Prior this, another team of researchers from the University Hospitals (UH) Case Medical Centre in Cleveland revealed that poor sleepers demonstrated more signs of skin ageing. Participants in this study gave a worse assessment of their own skin and facial appearance than people who sleep well.

Sleeplessness also affects physical health

Not only does lack of sleep make you look tired and unattractive, it also weakens your health. Numerous studies have linked sleep deficiency to an increase in the risk of stroke, heart disease, obesity, diabetes, memory loss, damaged bones, cancer and early death. It also has a huge impact on your mood and well-being. It is therefore important that you invest on quality sleep. Experts recommend getting7 to 8 hours of quality sleep every night.

Can you share some of the healthy tips to promote quality sleep? Feel free to post a comment below.

Source of this article:

Sleep Deprivation Affects Face Appearance, Study Shows