Sleep Apnea and Aging

Beauty may only be skin deep, but your skin is important. It’s a reflection of your overall health. If you don’t look well on the outside, chances are you’re not doing well on the inside, either. Sleep apnea affects your skin in ways you probably didn’t realize, and by the time it shows on your skin, your organs are being impacted too.

Sleeping and Your Skin

Sleep does more than improve your mental health. It refreshes your organs as well. The skin is the largest organ of your body, and, like the rest of you, it requires an appropriate amount of sleep. Sleep deprivation has been shown to wreak all kinds of havoc on your skin.

• Wrinkles. The skin produces new collagen while you sleep. Less collagen means more wrinkles.
• Baggy eyes. Blood flow is restricted if you don’t get enough sleep. That means waste products aren’t removed, and they pool where your skin is thinner, like under your eyes.
• Dry skin. When blood doesn’t flow, neither does water. Dry, flaky skin and dull hair are the results.

Getting your beauty rest isn’t just an old story. Your skin needs a long rest to stay healthy and elastic.

Stressful Sleep and Cortisol

If you have obstructive sleep apnea, you’re not getting the deep, restful sleep you and your skin need. With obstructive sleep apnea, you’re waking up many times per night, even if you don’t notice it. Each time you stop breathing, your body wakes you up for a split second, and this disrupts your sleep.

Untreated sleep apnea increases the level of a stress hormone called cortisol. Cortisol is used by the body to regulate your immune response. Too much cortisol has been associated with weight gain, high blood pressure, and diabetes. Cortisol breaks down collagen (which keeps your skin elastic and youthful) and produces fat.

If you’re not getting the sleep you need, your body becomes stressed and produces more cortisol, which leads to less restful sleep, and thus more cortisol production and even less restful sleep. What’s a body to do?

Sleep Apnea Treatment

When you get good, restful sleep, your body can reverse these effects almost as fast as they began. Once the excess cortisol production has been switched off, your skin will begin repairing itself, removing the waste products and smoothing out the wrinkles and bags.

The first step is to see a doctor for a sleep assessment to determine that you have no other underlying health issues. Sleep apnea specialist Dr. Clifford Brown will conduct a sleep study to determine the cause of your issues. Then our team will get to work preparing the best oral appliance to correct whatever caused the sleep apnea and get you back to sleep.

There’s no reason to delay. Call Silent Night Therapy for a complimentary consultation about your sleep problem today at 631-983-2463. We’re waiting to help you get the good night’s sleep you deserve.