A good night’s sleep is incredibly important for health. In fact, it is just as important as eating healthy and exercising. Sleep is a basic human need, when we sleep, our bodies rest but our brains are active. Sleep lays the groundwork for a productive day ahead. 

Some of the reasons why good sleep is important:

- Poor sleep can make you fat

- Poor sleep have a greater risk to heart diseases

- Poor sleep is linked to depression

- Sleep improves your immune system

- Sleep affects your emotions and social interaction

There’s a new secret to younger-looking skin that is now revealed to sleep-deprived Filipino women. 

It doesn’t come as a surprise then that women could use some extra snooze time to recoup from stress. Science backs this up further, as Jim Horne, Britain’s leading sleep expert, has found that women need 20 minutes more sleep than men.  

Apart from all the activities that they take on, women’s need for extra sleep is also due to how their brains work harder during the day and are wired differently from men. 

“Women tend to multi-task—they do lots at once and are flexible—and so they use more of their actual brain on a daily basis. Because of that, their sleep need is far greater than their male counterparts,” Horne said. 

The skin is one of the first to show the effects of sleep deprivation, being a window to what’s happening inside the body. With just a few nights devoid of sleep, the skin becomes unable to adequately repair itself, starts looking sallow, the blood vessels around the eyes dilate and cause dark circles, and puffiness under the eyes create unsightly eye bags. Pile up more sleepless nights and a myriad of other problems surface: dry, flaky skin, enlarged pores, breakouts, and dull, aged complexion.

Skin experts also caution against prolonged sleep deprivation as it leads to more irreversible effects, such as premature aging and permanent skin discoloration.