Fix Your Sleep to Heal Your Eczema and TSW
Is your itchy skin condition such as eczema or topical steroid withdrawal (TSW) leading to your poor sleep? Probably. However, consider flipping this narrative! Your poor sleep may actually be leading to your skin issues! Here at Fighting Eczema we try our best to uncover the root causes of inflammatory skin conditions. Let’s discuss why poor sleep may be a root cause for your skin condition.
Good quality sleep produces a hormone called growth hormone. Growth hormone is a major factor when it comes to rebuilding and repairing the skin. If you are not sleeping well, your body will not be producing proper amounts of growth hormone, which means that your body will not repairing your skin effectively. You need sleep to heal your skin!
Let’s fix your sleep
Here are some guidelines that you can utilize to get your sleep back on track. Try to incorporate as many of these tips into your lifestyle for the best chances of getting quality sleep every night, resulting in repair of the skin. Remember, “what works for one person might not work for another person” so find what works for you. Your personal sleep hygiene will be unique to you!
1. Have a strict sleep schedule
Your body produces different hormones at different times of the day. “Wake-up hormones” are produced in the morning whereas “bedtime hormones” are produced at night. The best signal that your body uses to know when to produce these hormones is your wake-up time and bedtime. If you wake up at different times throughout the week, your body will not know when to produce those “wake-up hormones”. Same idea goes for the “bedtime hormones”.
Our recommendation is to set an alarm that will wake you up at the same time every morning. Just make sure you get up rather than sleeping through the alarm! This will allow your body to get a good circadian rhythm going. Eventually, your body will naturally wake up around this time every morning and you will also feel sleepy around the same time every night.
If you have trouble waking up when your alarm goes off, try putting your alarm clock on the other side of the room so you physically have to get up to turn the alarm off. Or try to have something to look forward to every morning, such as a hearty breakfast or maybe your favourite TV show. Another idea is to ask someone who lives with you to smack you in the head at the same time every morning. That should be enough to wake you up!
2. Nap only if needed
Sometimes you are just so low on energy that you need a nap! If you do need to nap, try to limit them to 30 minutes maximum and have them before the early afternoon. Otherwise they may affect your ability to go to sleep later at night.
3. Get sunlight during the day
Most people are not getting enough sunlight during the day! How does this affect sleep you may ask?
Getting sunlight produces a hormone called serotonin, which you might know as one of your “happy hormones”. The cool thing about this hormone is that it is converted to a hormone called melatonin at night! Melatonin is responsible for making you sleepy. If you do not get much sunlight during the day, your body will not have a lot of serotonin in the body to convert to melatonin at night. This means it will be much harder for you to feel sleepy at night.
We recommend getting at least 30 minutes of sunlight every day. This does not have to be direct sunlight and it does not necessarily have to be a sunny day outside. Sunlight will be bouncing off of trees, walls, the grass, and concrete. These rays will be hitting you even if you are sitting in the shade. So no matter what the weather is like, try to get outside and soak up some sunlight!
4. Exercise daily
Studies consistently show that exercising during the day results in better sleep at night. Exercise is essential for regulating the immune system, which is very important for us suffering from inflammatory skin conditions. Increased mood and better sleep are just added bonuses.
We recommend at least 30 minutes of physical activity every single day. Ideally you want do both aerobic exercise and resistance training throughout the week. Find physical activities that you enjoy!
5. Limit caffeine and alcohol intake
When it comes to caffeine, don’t consume it within 10 hours of your ideal bedtime. So if you want to go to bed at midnight, don’t consume anything with caffeine after 2pm.
Caffeine has an average half life of about 6 hours. So let’s say you drink a coffee with 100mg of caffeine at 4pm. At 10pm, 6 hours later, 50mg of caffeine may still be in your system, keeping you awake for longer than you want!
When it comes to alcohol, studies show that the sedative nature of alcohol might help you fall asleep faster but overall it decreases your quality of sleep. If your quality of sleep is terrible, that may affect production of growth hormone when you sleep. Remember, we want to produce growth hormone because it promotes rebuilding of the skin.
6. Create a good sleep environment
Here are some key tips for creating the perfect sleep environment:
Keep your room as dark as possible. Consider a sleeping mask!
Lower temperature promotes sleep. Keep the room relatively cold by using a fan, air conditioning, or an open window!
Block out noise. Earplugs may be helpful!
Only use your bed for sleep and sexy time… no studying or working on the bed!
7. Have a wind-down routine before bed
Your brain needs time to relax and wind-down before bed. Try to incorporate some relaxing activities into your bedtime routine. This may include reading, journalling, meditating, crocheting, or whatever it is that you like to do. Avoid screens during this time if possible.
8. Go to bed only when you are tired
If you find yourself tossing and turning for 20-30 minutes or more in your bed, your body might just not be ready to go to sleep. If this is the case, get out of bed. Do something that is not too stimulating such as listening to music or doing some reading. When you find yourself yawning or feeling sleepy, this is the time to get back into bed. The idea is that we want our bodies to associate the bed with being asleep, not with being awake.
BONUS tips: consider the following
Revenge Bedtime procrastination
Also known as sleep procrastination! This is the idea that you delay going to sleep because at night you have free time to yourself whereas during the day you have a lack of free time. Think about your daily schedule. Do you have time for yourself during the day or are you just too busy? If you do not have free time to yourself during the day, revenge bedtime procrastination may be contributing to your sleep issues. If this is the case, you need to make time for yourself during the day!
Stress and anxiety
Cortisol is a “wake-up” hormone that wakes you up in the mornings and slowly goes down throughout the day, eventually being very low by bedtime. Cortisol can also be released when you are stressed or anxious. If you are stressed or anxious around bedtime, your cortisol levels will likely be higher than normal, keeping you from falling asleep.
If this sounds like you, you really need to dig deep into what is causing your stress and anxiety. Yes, you dealing with your skin condition is likely contributing to this stress but often times there is something deeper that needs to be uncovered.
“The best cure for insomnia is to get a lot of sleep.”
