The benefits of ‘beauty sleep’

By MiNDFOOD

The benefits of ‘beauty sleep’
A good night’s sleep is one of the most important things you can do for your health, and enjoying good health is the biggest contributor to achieving natural beauty.

Some even say that routinely enjoying plenty of sleep can turn back the clock.

While there are many alternative remedies which promise to replenish dull and tired skin, there is no substitute for a good night’s sleep.

So how does getting your ‘beauty sleep’ actually work?

Biologists from the University of Manchester have shown how the body clock mechanism boosts our ability to maintain our bodies when we are most active.

Professor Karl Kadler, lead author of the study which was published in Nature Cell Biology, says the discovery may one day help unlock some of the mysteries of ageing.

The scientists have discovered that there are two types of fibrils – the rope-like structures of collagen that are woven by the cells to form tissues.

Thicker fibrils are permanent and stay with us throughout our lives, unchanged from the age of 17.

The thinner fibrils, the researchers have found are sacrificial, breaking during the day but are replenished by sleep.

“Collagen provides the body with structure and is our most abundant protein, ensuring the integrity, elasticity and strength of the body’s connective tissue,” said Kadler.

“It’s intuitive to think our matrix should be worn down by wear and tear, but it isn’t and now we know why: our body clock makes an element which is sacrificial and can be replenished, protecting the permanent parts of the matrix.”

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