Wondering how to achieve your best skin overnight? There’s truth to the term “beauty sleep.” When your head hits the pillow and you settle into a deep slumber, your skin goes into overdrive, repairing itself and fixing the daily damage done by environmental stressors and UV rays. Sleep is the best time to reduce the appearance of wrinkles and target bothersome skin conditions — without lifting a finger. Here’s how you can maximize your beauty sleep with a night cream.

What Happens To Your Skin When You Sleep? | Difference Between A Night Cream Vs Day Cream | Products To Enhance Your Beauty Sleep

What Happens To Your Skin When You Sleep?

1. Your Skin Goes Into Repair Mode

What really happens while you’re fast asleep? During this time, your skin is in a state of repair and regeneration, working hard to undo the damage caused by the environment, UV rays, stress and aging. As you rest, melatonin kicks in, helping to counteract the negative effects of sun damage from UV rays and pollution-clogged pores. At this time, your body is in repair mode, allowing for greater cell turnover as aging skin cells are replaced with new ones. While this work happens at all stages of your sleep cycle, the majority of the skin’s repair and regeneration occurs during REM sleep. Therefore, getting the right amount of shut-eye and deep sleep are key to keeping your skin in its best shape. 

2. Skin Care Products Become More Effective

At night, your body temperature rises and your skin becomes more permeable, allowing it to soak up the active ingredients in your night cream. Your body turns its attention from fighting damaging environmental stressors all day to the nighttime task of repairing itself. StyleCraze says, “Any product that you use at night will be much more effective at hydrating the skin, reducing fine lines and wrinkles and brightening your skin tone.”

3. Your Skin Loses Moisture Overnight

If good-for-you ingredients can enter your epidermis, essential moisture can also escape. Transepidermal water loss, or TEWL, peaks at night, often leaving you with parched, dehydrated skin by morning. Because your skin loses more water when you sleep, it’s essential to keep your skin’s moisture barrier intact with a deeply hydrating, replenishing night cream. You may even want to layer your night cream with a face oil to lock the moisture in as you rest. 

Difference Between A Night Cream Vs Day Cream

Compared to a day cream, a night cream is typically heavier in texture. The heavier texture is due to increased lipid content as well as hydrating, restorative ingredients geared towards nighttime repair processes. Ingredients found in overnight creams include hydrating actives, such as hyaluronic acid and heavier lipids, and ingredients that stimulate collagen and elastin.  

Skin Care Products To Enhance Your Beauty Sleep 

Now that you know the importance of getting some shut-eye, it’s time to learn how to achieve youthful-looking skin while you sleep (with the help of Eminence Organics overnight treatments). Adding an overnight treatment to your skin care routine can help support your skin’s natural processes, maximize the benefits of your beauty sleep and target specific conditions. Keep reading if you want to treat the appearance of wrinkles, target dark spots or fight the effects of pollution overnight. 

And, in addition to a potent overnight treatment, you can read about a full nighttime skin care routine for your specific skin type here. 

1. Products To Fight The Effects Of Pollution Overnight 

Enhance your skin’s hard work overnight with our Marine Flower Peptide Night Cream. This night cream contains botanical peptides and blue-green algae extract that minimizes the look of wrinkles and adds hydration to your complexion. These unique ingredients help the skin look stronger and more elastic.

To use this night cream, apply a thin layer of treatment with your fingertips to cleansed skin over the entire face and neck area. You may leave this on overnight. For extra hydration, apply a thicker layer or pair with a face oil. 

2. Target The Look Of Dark Spots While You Sleep

Overnight is also prime time for targeting an uneven skin tone. Our Bright Skin Overnight Correcting Cream works all night long to erase the look of dark spots while you sleep. From our award-winning VitaSkin Bright Skin Collection, this ultra-rich night cream is our most powerful skin-brightening botanical blend to date. With key ingredients like punarnava root, Swiss Alpine Plant Extracts and Natural Hydroquinone Alternative derived from African potato and the tara tree, the Bright Skin Overnight Correcting Cream visibly and naturally reduces the look of an uneven skin tone.