What I know for sure: you can eat perfectly, move your body, and use the best skincare - but if you're not sleeping, your skin won't heal. Sleep is when your body repairs inflammation, balances hormones, and regenerates cells. Without it, everything else falls apart.
Without adequate sleep, your body experiences:
- Increased inflammation throughout your system (skin puffiness / redness)
- Elevated cortisol (which triggers oil production and breakouts)
- Impaired skin barrier repair (dry, irritated skin)
- Worse insulin resistance (bad for hormonal acne - learn more about this connection here)
- Accelerated aging and slower wound healing (breakdown of collagen)
So I can't out-supplement or out-skincare bad sleep. But I'm not the greatest sleeper.
My Sleep Problem
I've dealt with insomnia my entire adult life. I remember being a teenager and unable to sleep, but I never found the answers as to WHY. It's just something I've managed and learned to live with.
What the Research Shows
If you're a woman, your odds of sleep troubles are worse than men - we're more likely to experience insomnia. Add perimenopause into the mix and it's a perfect storm.
About 50% of insomnia cases stem from anxiety, depression, or psychological stress. Chronic insomnia is linked to diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, stroke, and obesity. It also wreaks havoc on your skin - increasing inflammation, disrupting hormone balance, and accelerating aging.
The Two Types of Sleep Issues
Here's what I've learned: not all sleep problems are the same. It's either in your head or it's in your gut.
Type 1: Racing Mind (Anxiety-Driven Insomnia)
This is the noise in your head. Thoughts spinning, replaying conversations, making mental to-do lists at 2am. Your body is calm, but your brain won't shut up.
This type keeps cortisol elevated all night long. High cortisol = more inflammation = worse skin. It's also the type that makes you reach for sugar and caffeine the next day, which compounds the problem.
What works for me:
- Deep breathing and counting breaths
- Melatonin
- Journaling before bed to "download" my brain
Oddly enough, what works for most people has the opposite effect on me. GABA supplements keep me awake. Vitamin B5 sometimes helps, sometimes makes it worse. I find it interesting how we all respond differently to supplements and medications.
Type 2: Wired Body (Nervous System Dysregulation)
This is noise in your gut. Your heart might be racing, your stomach feels unsettled, and your body does not feel relaxed because you're stuck in fight-or-flight mode.
This is pure nervous system dysregulation. Your body thinks there's a threat even though you're lying in bed. This type is often tied to inflammation - either from food, stress, or both.
What helps me most:
- Acidophilus or a good probiotic
- Magnesium (I take it 2-3 hours before bed)
- Deep breathing
- Acupressure on my earlobes
I figured out that this type usually hits me when I've eaten or drank something my body finds inflammatory. Alcohol can trigger it. Eating too late triggers it. Even a stressful day can leave my nervous system too activated to settle down at night.
I'm currently training to run a marathon, and I've also learned that overtraining creates the same nervous system dysregulation. There's a delicate balance between pushing my body hard enough to adapt and pushing so hard that my nervous system can't calm down at night. I'm learning to adjust my runs based on how my body responds - because a hard workout that interferes with sleep isn't actually helping me get stronger.
The Hormone Factor
Hormones don't just affect your mood - they control your ability to sleep. High cortisol from stress keeps you wired. Insulin resistance (which gets worse with poor sleep) creates its own inflammation cycle that disrupts rest. High cortisol also impacts your lymphatic system's ability to clear inflammation, which is a factor in hormonal acne.
And here's the kicker: poor sleep makes insulin resistance worse, which increases androgens, which worsens acne. It's a vicious cycle.
Since hitting menopause, I've realized I probably lived my entire life with low progesterone. I take a supplement for it every night now, and it's made a real difference. Progesterone has a calming effect on the nervous system - it's one reason pregnancy makes some women sleep like logs.
Another Tool: Red Light Therapy
Not the "anti-aging" wavelengths everyone talks about for skin - I use the near-infrared setting designed for pain relief and healing. I place it on my back or stomach, and there's real science behind this: it increases circulation and helps your body shift into a parasympathetic (rest-and-digest) state.
Some nights the combination of warmth and the healing wavelength puts me in an almost coma-like state. If you deal with back pain or digestive inflammation, it's a two-for-one win.
The Bottom Line
Sleep isn't just about feeling rested. It's about giving your body the time it needs to reduce inflammation, balance hormones, and repair itself - including your skin.
I spent years treating my skin from the outside while ignoring what was happening on the inside. Now I know better. If your skin isn't responding to treatments, if your hormones feel off, if you're dealing with chronic inflammation - work on your sleep first.
Follow my wellness journey on Instagram @lola_gillies - where I'm documenting what happens when a former esthetician stops relying on treatments and starts building health from the inside out.