Ladies who follow me on twitter might recall the day last week when I mentioned that I’d pulled a 30 hour day with no sleep. It was actually a 33 hour day, or thereabouts. I was up at 6.45am Thursday and did not get any sleep till 3pm Friday. It was work related, unintentional and unplanned and it was the culmination of a week of high stress and little sleep and rest.
I’m not about to ask for sympathy here – its work after all and a work stunt I’ve pulled before in my not so distant youth but its just reaffirmed to me just how much our bodies need rest and proper sleep to properly function and for our skin to look good. Some of us may be lucky in that you don’t have to undergo these sorts of stresses on your body, but I do have some tips you can try to alleviate the stress. I will also tell you what happened to my skin during the last week as a result of the stress and lack of sleep and rest.
Stress and Lack of sleep and rest can cause breakouts
This is something many of us know, but how many of us realize when its happening? I had a very stressful period from Tuesday-Friday. Starting from Tuesday itself, I noticed bumps appearing on my cheek, forehead and chin. Some were particularly painful. These bumps soon turned angry and red and showed no signs of receeding despite anything I did to them. In fact, my itchy fingers popped one and it got inflamed and wouldn’t go down!
When I managed to get some rest from Friday onwards, these bumps and spots disappeared quite quickly. The inflamed spot I popped just disappeared like nothing happened! This definitely confirmed the theory that stress and lack of rest can contribute significantly to breakouts. If you are having sudden inexplicable breakouts, take a look at your lifestyle and work. Are you undergoing a stressful period in your life or at work? Are you getting enough sleep?
Eye bags and dark eye circles are more pronounced with lack of rest
I have to thank the Gods for concealer during the last week! I had some serious concealing to do for the dark eye circles and eye bags that appeared. Lack of sleep and rest causes dark eye circles and bags to form and I’m not naturally prone to having them as a serious concern.
After a long rest and sleep, I woke up to relatively brighter eyes and the dark eye circles and eye bags were all but gone. If you notice a sudden appearance of eye bags or dark eye circles and you haven’t been having sufficient sleep and rest, this might be why.
Stress and lack of rest can cause pigmentation to look more prominent
If you don’t have a pigmentation problem, you may not notice this. But if you do, as I do, this is a problem indeed! With increased stress levels and lack of sleep and rest, my pigmentation problem flared up. Freckles on my cheekbones were looking much more prominent and darker, and here’s the clincher. It does not go away with sleep!
I’ve resorted to going back to my whitening products to deal with this problem. Granted, I don’t expect them to go away (it can’t with just products alone) but at least I can get them calmed down to a level that I find reasonable.
Again, if you suddenly notice your pigmentation problem getting worse, and the sun isn’t a problem for you, stress and lack of rest may be it.
Poor health and lowered immune system
When you try to pull a stunt like I did, all your body’s resources goes towards keeping you awake and alert for the time you need to be. It could be adrenaline keeping you going but everything else in your body too has to work overtime to keep you upright and mobile and thinking clearly. In this time, your immune system drops and bacteria that have laid dormant take this opportunity to wreak havoc on your body.
In my case, I woke up on Saturday morning with a fever and a sore throat. Neither showed any signs of abating although rest, staying hydrated and lots of honey over the long weekend is helping. I’m still fighting it.
When you’re younger (as I was 😛 ) you don’t feel it as much. I didn’t fall sick immediately after pulling a 30 hour day. A good long sleep and I was fine. With age creeping up on you, and body defenses lowered, your body takes a much longer time to heal from these sorts of abuses.
Poor skin and health were the immediate things I noticed after this particularly stressful period I went through. And if I were to have to do it again (I hope never!) there are a few things I’d have done and taken note of:-
- Keeping hydrated with water. When stressed it is easy to forget to drink enough water and liquids. You will find you need to go to the toilet more, but our bodies need the water to keep going. So staying hydrated with water or isotonic drinks may help. Keeping hydrated will also prevent our skins from drying out. This applies during and after this stressful period.
- Herbal drinks may help. If you subscribe to the Chinese philosophy of yin and yang, “heat” and “cool” as I do, then drinking a cooling herbal drink may help cool down your body so you don’t fall sick. When your body undergoes high stress with little rest, it gets “heaty” so a “cooling” drink dampens the fires. Something simple like a barley water drink or young coconut helps. Probably applicable only in Asia though 😛
- Vitamin C and Vitamins to boost immunity. If you know you will be going through a stressful period, up your doseage of Vitamin C and vitamins. Your body’s immunity will be lowered and you need all the help you can get to ensure that the nasty bacteria doesn’t have a field day. As skin breakouts can also be attributed to bacteria, this might also help keep spots away.
- Keep skin hydrated and spot treatment handy. If you can work at home, slap on a hydrating face mask while you work. It will help keep your skin hydrated and cooled down which can prevent spots from appearing or getting inflamed. Having spot treatment handy is also useful because if you can’t fight it, you could at least treat it 😛 I’m now back to my hydration and spot treatment regime.
- Try to take a break after that. I realise it may not always be possible but after a very stressful period, it would be good to take a few days off. You don’t have to go anywhere or do anything. You just have to stay home and rest and allow your body time to recover. Also, try to take things easy fir a while as i will be. Its easy to draw on reserves you never knew you had but replenishing those reserves take more time than you can imagine. I was lucky I had a long weekend thereafter to catch up on rest and sleep but if I did not, I would have taken time off because ultimately, health is much more important than wealth! 😉
Have you ever pulled all nighters for whatever reasons? Did you experience the same sort of skin and health stresses I did when faced with lack of sleep and rest e.g when working late nights? Do you have tips on how to counter it? Do share! 🙂
Paris B
Liz says
What do you mean by ‘cooling’ herbal drink?
ParisB says
Something like barley water or young coconut or Chinese herbal drinks that help cool down the “heat” in the body. It is the Chinese belief that late nights or long hours or stress will generate “heat” in the body that upsets the balance of your chi so a cooling drink will help rebalance that chi. A bit complex to explain but in a nutshell that would be it 🙂
Marina(Makeup4all) says
Oh my, I could do that at my university years but fit’s getting harder and harder. And to tell the truth, I can’t really think of anything that would make me stay awake for such a long time.
ParisB says
If you have to get something done by hook or by crook, believe me you could LOL! 😉 But yes I have to agree. Back in the day I could easily pull off this stunt without too many side effects. These days, being older and not very much wiser recovery takes a much longer time 🙁
Marina (Makeup4all) says
Lol about not being wiser 😀 And oops, I meant it’s not fit’s obviously.
Jue says
The longest streak was 27 hours but that was counter back with sushi for dinner and 18 hours of sleeping. Best time in my life.
Currently, I am in stressful situation myself and for the past week been waking at 3am. Is 3 am the magic number?
I get the spot ( T_T ) but the turnaround + ANR REALLY REALLY help but the eyebag nothing can help that!
ParisB says
LOL You could have sushi after 27 hours of no sleep?? *salute* All I wanted to do was crawl into bed 😉 I do think 3am is the witching hour actually and I’m starting to use Turnaround after reading your comment 😉
Amanda says
Mine’s 38 hours and it was work-related. I was in Moscow for work in the end of September and it’s already cold. I didn’t dare to look at myself in the mirror after all was done *lol* Surprisingly I didn’t have any breakout – my skin was perfect during my 2 weeks stay there, I did however have the terrible dark circles! Sleepless nights due to work-related matters are quite common for me 😉
ParisB says
Ok you win LOL! 😀 I hope work related stress lightens up for you – too much stress isn’t good for the body! 😉
Jess says
Great post, Paris! I totally agree with you in all points!
Stress and lack of sleep always make my skin go crazy with breaking out and such.
Thanks for sharing your tips!
ParisB says
Welcome Jess! The only good thing for me, is that stress related breakouts go away much more quickly than hormonal ones 😉
lynne says
I pulled a lot of all-nighters as an undergrad, sometimes going up to 40 hours without sleep (especially when deadlines loom) and my skin would become dry and dull and just bleah. Another disadvantage of sleep I discovered recently: it’s really important for weight loss! I’ve been trying to lose weight for the last 2 months or so, and when I dont get enough sleep (i.e., when I’m sleeping 4-5 hours each night), my weight remains stagnant no matter how much I do to ensure sufficient exercise and watch my food intake. But when I sleep for 8 hours or more, the weight just melts off, without me adjusting a single thing in my diet / exercise routine. I just wish I could afford the time now to catch up on those nightly 8 hours, but with my insanely grad school workload, probably only end of the month!
ParisB says
That’s such an interesting thought Lynne! I didn’t think about the co-relation between sleep and weight loss. But I do think our bodies know best – maybe if we are awake for long hours our body thinks we need the fat storage to stay alive but if we get enough rest and relaxation then we don’t need it so much 😀 Good luck with grad school! 😀
Bun Bun Makeup Tips says
My skin was all dehydrated and pimple-infested, and I had dark eye circles all the time when I was studying. We can own all the expensive creams and gels and treatments in the world, but nothing beats a good night’s sleep.
Okie, good night. =D
ParisB says
I hope you had a good night’s sleep Bun Bin! 😀 But yes our skin would look a lot better with lots of good restorative sleep 😉
AnT says
Wow! Thanks Paris for the tips 😀
I have actually went through 3 days in a row without sleeping though 😛 I will get sore throat because of coffee indulgence 😛
However, I find that spirulina helps a lot. My throat don’t further gets inflammed like it used to be (because I am still staying up late as well for both work and study). I will ingest at least 10 tablets of spirulina at night and 10 tablets of spirulina in the morning 😛
Then yes, lots of water, coffee, water, barley and coffee and water 😛 It helps 😀
Oh yes, this applies to me whenever I am jet lagging you know LOL 😀
ParisB says
I tried taking spirulina once and puked my guts up. Haven’t tried taking it again 😛 But I do agree that a heavy dose of vitamins will help keep all the bugs away so there’s a lesser chance of falling sick after pulling crazy hours 😀
Deanna Barber says
I’m taking 21 hours this semester and at the moment, I’m studying for finals. I’m not completely new to this, but I’m working on 31 hours & there isn’t any time to sleep. I have 2 finals and a research paper due 12 hours from now.
Really glad to have found this post.. great ideas and knowing I have company through the pain!
I do some easy, quick yoga (bits and pieces of Sun salutes) to get my blood flowing again.
Usually, it’s much easier to eat quick unhealthy foods, this time I’ve eaten fruits and veggies and I’ve noticed a difference.. can’t let go of the sugar free redbull and chai tea lattes though 🙁
However, it isn’t over.. I’m not looking forward to being proven wrong! But if anyone is interested in the results, I’ll try to remember I have something to do other than sleep!
Shubham says
Well I don’t want to brag but the reason I found this article is because I can’t sleep . It’s been 34 hours and now it’s my exam in 2 hours and then after coming back home I have my coaching class that will be of 4 hours .I don’t know what’s gonna happen
Gary says
I’ve been awake for nearly 30 hours and I feel so weird dark circles etc