Eight things that happen to your face while you sleep
Skin does more overnight than at any other point in the day, and the bedroom does more to it than most people realise. Several of these are worth knowing simply because they explain a morning face that seems to make no sense.
You lose water the whole time
Steadily, for seven or eight hours, into a room that is usually drier than the rest of the house. This is the main reason skin can feel tight on waking and it is the thing an evening routine is actually for.
The bedroom is drier than you think
A closed room with a heater in it in July is a dry room by two in the morning. If your face is tight only on waking, look at the bedroom before you look at the products.
Fluid settles, then moves
Lying flat lets fluid pool around the eyes, which is most of what morning puffiness is. It moves within an hour of getting up, which is why the face in the mirror at seven is not the face other people see at nine.
One side of your face is being pressed into a pillow
For hours, every night, for years. Side sleepers get creases on one cheek that take longer to fade with age, and it is the reason the two sides of a face can differ noticeably. Sleeping on your back is the fix, and it is easier said than done.
Whatever you applied has all night to work
Nothing is going over the top, no sun, no makeup. It is the least interrupted window in the day, which is why a night routine tends to outperform the same products used in the morning.
Short sleep shows in skin first
Before it shows in mood, energy or anything else. Flat, dull, and reads as tired. There is no product answer to this one and pretending otherwise is how a lot of skincare gets sold.
The morning mirror exaggerates
Puffiness, pillow creases and overnight water loss all peak at the moment you look. Judging a routine at seven in the morning is judging it at its worst hour, and it is when most people decide something is not working.
It resets within about an hour
Most of the above is gone by the time you leave the house. Knowing that saves a lot of unnecessary product changes made on the strength of one bad reflection.