Sleeping Beauty: Sleep Your Way to Better Skin and Hair

Sleep's Beauty-Boosting Benefits

Active women, rejoice: Even while you're snoozing, you're getting plenty accomplished. Slumber is nature's most powerful beauty treatment. Not only do the optimal seven to nine hours a night leave you looking luminous, but also many hair, face, and body products are most effective overnight because they penetrate better when you're at rest. Spend more time in bed and wake up to these benefits.

A Radiant Complexion
Skimp on shut-eye and your skin will look dull. "When you're tired, blood doesn't flow efficiently," says Michael Breus, MD, author of Beauty Sleep. As you snooze, your body churns out human growth hormone -- a crucial ingredient for collagen production. All this below-the-surface metabolic activity, however, helps cause skin to lose about 25 percent more water overnight than it does during the day, says Howard Murad, MD, author of The Water Secret. Prevent moisture loss by applying a cream with skin-sealing dimethicone. Try Lancome Genifique Repair Youth Activating Night Cream ($95, lancome-usa.com).