What sleeping late and bio rhythms have to do with acne?
Let me ask you a question.
What do you think, can staying up late give you acne? I mean regularly staying up until wee-hours and waking up around noon.
I think it can, and here’s why.
I recently read an interesting article about the biological rhythms that control our bodies. Some examples of these rhythms are:
- The stress hormones adrenaline and cortisol are naturally released into the bloodstream during the early morning hours to promote physical activity.
- The liver is more active during the night than it is during the day.
- Most digestive enzymes are secreted during the day.
- The happiness-producing brain hormone serotonin is produced in response to natural daylight.
- The sleep-inducing hormone melatonin is secreted in response to the darkness of night.
It’s been estimated there are over 1000 such biological rhythms that operate and control your body.
The various individual timers or body clocks are linked to a master clock. The master clock coordinates the individual clocks and makes sure every activity in the body is carried out according to its master plan. This master plan is nothing but body ’s constant effort to maintain perfect equilibrium or balance.
That master clock checks its time on the nature’s most influential cycle, known as the circadian rhythm. That’s really just a fancy term for the normal day and night cycle.
Here’s an interesting quote from the article that shows the importance of this:
“The increasing and decreasing levels of melatonin and serotonin indicate to the cells whether it is dark or light outside and whether they should be more active or slow down their activities. This intricate mechanism ensures that all physical functions are synchronized with the rhythmic changes that occur in the natural environment. This is known as ‘entrainment.’ The health of each cell in the body depends, therefore, on the degree to which we allow the body to be in synchrony and harmony with the cycles of day and night.Any deviation from the circadian rhythm causes abnormal secretions of the hormones melatonin and serotonin. This hormonal imbalance, in turn, leads to erratic biological rhythms, which can subsequently disrupt the harmonious functioning of the entire organism, including the digestion of food, cell metabolism and overall hormonal balance.
Suddenly, we may feel ‘out of sync’ or shaky and become susceptible to developing an illness, which could include a simple head cold, headache, depression or even a cancerous tumor. The pineal gland controls reproduction, sleep and motor activity, blood pressure, the immune system, the pituitary and thyroid glands, cellular growth, body temperature, and many other vital functions. All of these depend on the regular melatonin cycle which, yet again, is controlled by our body ’s ability to be in synchrony with nature ’s rhythms.”
The Wonders Of Our Biological Rhythm by Andreas Moritz
If you’ve been reading my emails, website and books you know I’m a fierce advocate of getting clear by improving your health, bringing your body back to that mysterious ‘balance’ and living in harmony with nature and the way nature made us.
It’s by far the easiest, cheapest and the most effective way to get clear. It requires no supplements or doing any weird stuff – like stuffing plastic pipes into your but (which should be exit only) and flooding it with water, or drinking a cup of olive oil and lemon juice mixture and calling it healthy.
Obeying these biological rhythms are a perfect example of the kind of things I’d suggest you do to cure acne.
From a personal experience I can tell you these rhythms are very important to your health, well-being and acne.
Just as an example, I’m much, much happier, more productive and positive on the days I wake up early. On the days I sleep late I feel lazy and lethargic the whole day. I get hardly anything done and negative thoughts creep into my mind all the time.
That’s a perfect example of what acne comes down to. You can either live a healthy life and be rewarded with happiness and clear skin. Or you can wreck your health and get a handful of misery and a face full of pimples.
That, my friend, is a universal law. It applies always and you cannot escape it.
Back to acne and biological rhythms. I remember an email I received from a person on the Clear Skin Coaching Program. He mentioned to me that he gets acne every time he stays up late for two or more days in a row. Coincidence? I don’t think so.
Think about how this relates to your acne. I suggest keeping a simple journal to which you mark at what time you go to bed and wake up, how do you feel during the day and how does your skin look like.
Simply going to bed and waking up early may not be enough to get you clear, but it definitely helps with acne. And if you don’t, well you are making curing acne so much more difficult.
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Comments on What sleeping late and bio rhythms have to do with acne?
Yes. Sleep late cause acne for me.
During my undergraduate time, my face was full of acne especially at the forehead, and yeah,of course sleep late + do assignment + think lot to produce good result.
Then, after working, the acne seems to slow down…as i sleep early.
Now I’m back to study, had 3-4 days sleep late at night (3-4pm), get up at 8am. The acne symptom become worst.
Agree that sleep late grows acne. Now i wanna sleep early, and wake up early.
I got acne when I started working on the night shift.
I worked the graveyard shift for 4 years until I was 27y/o. I never had any issues/history of acne until I started to work the graveyard shift. Even as a teenager I never broke out as much as when I worked the night shift. Staying up late creates stress on the body. It’s a proven fact that stress causes acne…
I think you’re on to something here.
I just did a Google search, “can negative thinking cause acne?”. I have suffered with acne on and off for years and have taken antibiotics on 2 occasions (which cleared it up but only briefly). I have tried homeopathy, Chinese medicine, you name it… but it always comes back.
I have been thinking about what might cause my outbreaks and one of my theories was that when I have several late nights it gets worse. Reading that other people have similar thoughts on this is reassuring so maybe I’ll stick with early nights and see how I get on.
I also thought that maybe my negative thinking about my skin could make the problem more apparent. They say energy follows thought so maybe this is a vicious cycle of thought process. You think this could be true?
Also, I think that when I eat a lot of sugary food I seem to break out more. This is quite unfortunate because I love sweet foods. I eat healthily (lots of fruits and vegetables) but when I take sugar I think my body doesn’t like it and gives me pimples as a result. I’m not sure of the physiological process exactly but it may be due to the sharp rise in blood sugar level – although I’m not sure of the possible link with acne.
I will try your suggestion of going to bed earlier and I will report back.
All the best,
Biff
Eureka!
thats it! that has to be it. my acne is exactly like my sleep habits, completely irregular, but i never put the two together. So glad i saw this!(I say this at 6 in the morning when i still havent gone to sleep haha).
COMMENT BY SEPPO
Yes, I know hypocrisy is fun. I write articles about how coffee is bad for the skin sitting at Starbucks sipping a soy latte : )
Anyway, now off to bed with you. See if fixing your sleep schedule helps with your acne.
Seems true!
I guess going to bed late does make acne worser ..when I wake up in the morning it seems less inflamed …by the time I go to bed its soo red and inflamed .. it could be due to stress and staying up too late
Wow you’re right-acne is worse when I’m a night owl
Hi. I think I just made a major connection, so thank you for this article.
I had been taking a popular acne treatment (Vilantae) and was having good effects. However, it seems to have stopped working and I’ve been trying to figure out why. I realize that I’ve been up late (at least 2am) pretty regularly and sleeping until 9am (and being late for work).
My skin is definitely worse! I’m also wondering if my chalazions (cysts in the eyelids-you thought regular acne was bad) are the result of this staying up late because I’ve never had them before (I actually had to have one CUT out by an eye surgeon). I will definitely change my entire schedule around if there is any chance this will help.
Thanks!
I have experienced myself that when I go to bed early and wake up early, I have very clear & clear skin with very less or no oil at all on my face. The sores and acne seems to calm down and I feel a lot more energetic throughout the day.
When I go to sleep late and wake up early or wake up late it’s the exact opposite of the above.
I suggest that everyone should go to bed early and wake up early as a very old saying goes “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise”
Thanks for your efforts Seppo.
this is true . really .
but the question is .
How can i sleep early ?
i’ve been trying to sleep early these days
and i just cant sleep .
i’ve been trying to take pills and stuff.
but it doesnt help.
@ms.desperate, trying doing it the other way around. Force yourself to get up earlier. That way you will be more tired in the evening and falling asleep is easier. It does take some time to change your rhythm, though.
there is natural melatonin pills i just got some the other day and itput to me to sleep great and woke up feeln good just take em about an hour b4 sleep so take it early cuz by the time u sleep late your already stressed out even if you dont know it cuz its like were tired but we dont knockout..so then your body and brain is stressed even ifyou dont feel it….yet… so get them pills .seach em up… rite aid i think is where there at..ask em there . just do it though..trust
@Biff Treehorn:
It’s not necc negative thinking, but you are right. It’s the stress or stressors on the body ‘from negative thinking’. A chemical in the body is released called “Cortisol” and that can have negative effects on the body, including acne. I googled some stuff, but here is a link I found explaining it a little more in detail. I don’t know if its coicidence or not, but I found when I take healthy or small doses of ‘Melatonin’ regularly my skin is clearest I have ever seen it. I want to get with a scientist and create a acne and overall health formula that would clear skin, and help you sleep better, and think more clearly, resulting in less stress!
I forgot to mention, on the counterside… Cortisol is released when negative thoughts trigger it, but we also have chemicals released when positive, or happy thoughts trigger it , including endorphins, GABA (both involved in adrenal or adrenaline release), Seratonin (relax chemical), and dopamine.