Why The Skin Cycle Is Seriously Important To Your Routine
The science that studies our internal clock has a lot to say about skin and how to keep it healthy. Come find out how to hit the rhythm!
Know the famous biological clock? It is not a mere figure of speech. Our body works following a cadence that makes all cells work optimally, according to different times of day and night.
This is what chronobiology shows, the science that studies our internal clock and how its rhythm helps guide our organism’s functions.
Like other organs in the body, the skin also works in cycles. Some cells even have clocks that can work autonomously from the others.
Light is the main factor that dictates the rhythm of our organism, causing most functions to follow the rhythm of the circadian cycle, which are the physiological changes that happen within the period of 24 hours, repeatedly. It acts through the retina and comes not only from the sun, but also from lamps and devices such as cell phones and TVs.
That’s why opening the curtains and windows (or turning on the lights) helps us wake up. And that’s why sleeping with the TV on – or looking at your cell phone after you’re already lying down to sleep – affects sleep quality and, consequently, health.
The chronobioactivity of the skin
As the largest peripheral organ we have, the skin is an important interface with the external environment and works by receiving and generating different signals during the day and at night.
This causes several skin mechanisms to be triggered according to exposure to stimuli such as solar radiation, pollution and temperature fluctuations.
During the day
When we wake up, the production of water in our body is at its lowest level. This production increases throughout the day, and, at the end of the afternoon, it gradually drops again.
This explains why moisturizing your skin in the morning is so critical. The moisturizer helps rebalance and maintain water production levels and prevent transepidermal loss, which increases as the body temperature rises as we perform the day’s activities.
Even the fact that cleansing is the first step of our daytime skin care routine is also explained by chronobioactivity: at night, our cells work to regenerate, causing the body to release toxins that need to be removed from the skin surface.
The release of toxins also motivates the appearance of dark circles and, therefore, they are usually more apparent when we wake up.
During the day, DNA repair is less active and the skin needs to be protected. One more important task that the moisturizer assumes by helping to preserve the integrity of the hydrolipidic mantle, our protective biofilm, from an early age. And, of course, sunscreen, to reduce the damage that UV rays cause to our cells.
The skin’s pH also undergoes changes. Although slight, these changes increase the acidity of the outermost layer, creating an inhospitable environment for opportunistic microorganisms. Remember the importance of using soaps that do not interfere with the physiological pH of the skin? Here, one more proof.
Throughout the day, fat production accelerates. Therefore, sebum-regulating products are indispensable for those with oily or combination skin.
During the night
From 6 pm, our body starts to produce melatonin, progressively. It’s our biological clock understanding that the sun has set, and it’s time for the body to slow down to be able to perform a very important activity for the skin: cell regeneration.
Our cells regenerate through a mechanism called mitosis, a process in which a mother cell divides and gives rise to two daughter cells with the same genetic material.
Have you ever heard that treatment cosmetics (especially those that prevent wrinkles) should preferably be applied at night? This is the perfect time to use products that penetrate deeper into the skin and piggyback on cell mitosis to act more effectively.
The peak of cell mitosis occurs between 2 and 3 am. Therefore, the entire night skin care ritual needs to start earlier, making the most of the whole process. Always starting with cleaning, which has a special mission: to remove the impurities accumulated throughout the day.
At night, fat production slows down. With less fat in the skin barrier, transepidermal water loss increases and, again, applying a moisturizer is necessary.
On dry skin, thicker cosmetic forms are ideal. For oily or combination skin, serums are perfect, and seborregulation is still important, as these are skin types where the production of fat is high (although, at night, it is slightly reduced).
Also, Read : Barbara Erskine’s Top 4 Popular and Famous Quotes
Fun Fact
The skin cycle is a critical process that essentially involves healthy skin cells replacing dead ones after a certain period of time. New skin cells are formed within the deeper layers of the epidermis, after which they begin to move towards the surface of your skin. What happens during the skin cycle?
