Melatonin
Beautiful skin through sleep
Sleep disorders have become a widespread disease. Is it the lack of melatonin? Poor sleep accelerates the ageing process, reduces performance and causes stress. Relaxation and other methods help you to sleep well again: for more natural beauty, strength and a good mood!
Many people suffer from energy-sapping problems with falling asleep and staying asleep. Women are more often affected than men, as are many older and younger people. Are you one of them? Then read on. Because restful sleep leads to beautiful skin through sleep. Conversely, too little or poor-quality sleep, irregular sleeping hours and sleep disorders favour skin diseases and skin problems and have a negative impact on our overall health. Good, restful and regenerative sleep is therefore essential to relieve the skin and do it good, to give it the chance to regenerate, improve and heal.
Not all sleep is the same
Sleep is a state of external rest in which many vital signs differ from those of the waking state. Pulse, breathing rate and blood pressure fall during NREM sleep (non-rapid eye movement sleep, sleep stages I-III), and brain activity changes. Closing your eyes supports these functions. In REM sleep, on the other hand, we experience wake-like states with increased brain activity, increased heart and breathing rates and increased blood pressure.
Who is involved in sleep?
Formatio reticularis: a signalling centre for wakefulness with wake and wake-up functions. Serotonin has an inhibitory effect on falling asleep.
Thalamus: core areas in the brain stem can have an inhibitory effect on falling asleep. This leads to a reduction in alertness, a slackening of the skeletal muscles and the onset of sleep.
Hypothalamus: It produces less histamine and orexin in the dark. This signals to the brain that it is time to sleep because it has become dark.
We need sleep to survive. The “inner clock” plays a key role in regulating the sleep-wake cycle, which is based on the alternation of day and night and the time that has passed since the last time we woke up. It adjusts metabolic processes, growth performance and behaviour to the daily fluctuations.
You can also read our article on chronobiology here.
Beautiful skin while you sleep: are 5 hours not enough?
Even though it is often said that sleep is overrated and that people use this as an excuse to work even more, this attitude can have serious consequences for your health. For a while, it still works because the activities you love provide enough adrenaline. But then the body gets what it urgently needs: rest. And it needs it unconditionally.
When the weekend approaches, the overtaxed body often sees its chance and breaks down punctually on Friday evening, or you can’t get out of bed on Saturday morning: the body aches as if you had been run over by a train. Or you are afflicted by a migraine.
The body also likes to use a hefty cold as a forced break, which ties you to your bed for at least the whole weekend. Nature knows how to help when we overexert our bodies. Because rest and recuperation are essential for survival, the body and mind need to regenerate in order to be fit and productive again.
The 5 stages of sleep
Stage I (light sleep, shortly after falling asleep): The brain switches from alpha to theta waves. Muscle tension decreases and conscious perception of the environment disappears.
Stage II: In addition to theta waves, sleep spindles and K complexes are added. This stage becomes longer and longer during an eight-hour sleep and takes up more than 50 per cent of the total sleep.
Stage III (transition to deep sleep): Delta waves come to the fore, muscle tension continues to decrease.
Stage IV (deep sleep): Delta waves make up more than 50 per cent of brain waves. This is the deepest phase of sleep, and the sleeper who is now woken up is correspondingly disorientated. Sleepwalking and talking in your sleep are possible.
REM sleep (rapid eye movement): During this phase of sleep, the eyes move very quickly. The brain is very active. If you are woken during REM sleep, you will remember your dreams very well. After REM sleep, the body falls back into light sleep – the sequence of sleep phases begins again. This is repeated several times. The duration of REM sleep becomes longer and longer.
The thalamus and hypothalamus in the diencephalon and the reticular formation in the brain stem are involved in the initiation of sleep.
Eliminating external sleep disturbances
If your partner snores, you can change bedrooms. To combat traffic noise, you can install sound-proof windows or buy a high-quality mattress. The bedroom should be darkened and the room temperature should not exceed 18 degrees.
The ideal conditions in our sleeping environment are crucial to whether we can fall asleep and sleep well. Our sleep organ is the pineal gland. It is extremely important for our health and keeps us fit and young. It regulates our internal clock and sharpens our intuition. As soon as this gland is functionally impaired, the ageing process accelerates.
The pineal gland converts serotonin, which is produced during the day, into melatonin at night, which controls the sleep-wake cycle and influences our sleeping behaviour. Electromagnetic pollution has a very negative effect on the pineal gland, as it acts on it like light and blocks the nightly production of melatonin.
It is therefore important to eliminate all electromagnetic interference near the bed. Mobile phones, tablets and electronic alarm clocks have no place in bed. Another trigger for poor sleep is eating the wrong things before going to bed.
Eliminating internal sleep disorders
The “internal” causes are much more subtle. Constant brooding, nagging worries, racing heart, panic attacks, sweating, etc. – these symptoms are more likely to have their causes in our psyche.
We are chronically overworked, our partner is nagging us, we are worried about our job or money. We want to please and always be perfect. Psychological instability and often a diminished sense of self-worth are not uncommon direct consequences. This can rob us of sleep. Chronic fatigue is the result. A state of exhaustion with no prospect of recovery.
This state can lead to stress, burnout, depression and physical illnesses, even cancer. To suppress the symptoms, pills are swallowed that promise to solve all problems. The fact that these usually have serious side effects is kept quiet. A vicious circle begins!
What types of sleep disorders are there?
Sleep disorders are deviations from healthy sleep. But what types of sleep disorders are there?
Insomnia (difficulty falling asleep and sleeping through the night)
Sleep apnoea (breathing stops during sleep)
Hypersomnia (excessive sleeping)
Circadian sleep disorders (due to shift work/jet lag)
Parasomnia (sleepwalking, nightmares, waking up at night waking or teeth grinding)
Sleep-related movement disorders (e.g. restless legs syndrome)
Beautiful skin through sleep – avoiding stress
This vicious circle of an unadapted lifestyle, chronic exhaustion and mental and physical overload must be broken. There are many ways to reduce stress and get a good night’s sleep:
– Yoga is one of the best-known relaxation techniques from the Far East. The various forms of yoga help to reduce stress and promote physical and mental health.
– Autogenic training (AT) is based on autosuggestion. You put yourself in a state of relaxation by influencing yourself and your feelings with certain sentences.
The effect: you become much calmer, headaches caused by stress can disappear and you are less likely to let things get to you.
– Progressive muscle relaxation according to Dr Edmund Jacobson: the American doctor and founder of progressive muscle relaxation discovered that severe muscle tension had a negative effect on the mental state of his patients. Conversely, the reduction of muscle tension had a positive effect on the body, mind and soul. It is ideal for chronic back pain, migraines and stress.
Tips for a good night’s sleep
– Regular night’s sleep of seven to eight hours
– Avoid alcohol, nicotine and caffeine
– No heavy meals in the evening
– Personalised bedtime ritual including beauty routine
– Regular exercise and sport
– Physical and mental relaxation in the evening
– Darkened, quiet sleeping environment
How can cosmetics have a positive effect on sleep?
In cosmetics, we are allowed to use up to 0.003% melatonin as an additive to improve sleep.
This makes it ideal for a night serum or night cream.
But what is melatonin?
Melatonin is a hormone produced by the pineal gland in the brain. It plays an important role in regulating the sleep-wake cycle (circadian rhythm) and is typically produced in the evening to prepare the body for sleep. Melatonin is often used as a dietary supplement to treat insomnia or to improve sleep, especially in cases of sleep disorders due to jet lag or shift work. It is also being studied to understand its potential in treating other conditions such as depression, Alzheimer’s disease and jet lag.
Gummy bears with melatonin as a dietary supplement
Gummy bears are no longer just a sweet temptation for children. In recent years, they have established themselves as an innovative and popular form of dietary supplement. One particularly interesting variant is gummy bears with melatonin, which are used as an aid to improve sleep. In this article, we will look at what melatonin gummy bears are, how they work and what benefits they offer.
What are melatonin gummy bears?
Melatonin gummy bears are gummy candies enriched with the hormone melatonin. Melatonin is naturally produced in the pineal gland of the brain and plays a crucial role in regulating the sleep-wake cycle. The synthetic version of this hormone is used in dietary supplements to help people who have difficulty falling asleep or sleeping through the night.
Beauty through sleep: actually quite simple
When the skin goes through its repair programme at night, high-quality cosmetic products can support these processes and enhance their effect. Hair can also be optimally cared for during sleep. So the term beauty sleep is by no means a myth! Cosmacon is happy to develop modern and highly effective formulations for you.
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