How to Hydrate Your Skin Overnight and Why It's Important

What if we told you your skin does its most important work while you’re asleep? When you think about skincare, it’s easy to focus only on your morning routine, but your nighttime skincare routine is just as important since it helps your skin repair, recover, and recharge while you sleep. Your skin naturally loses moisture while you sleep through a process called transepidermal water loss (TEWL). Due to this, your skin barrier is more vulnerable overnight which can cause dryness, tightness, and even irritation if you don’t use hydrating skincare products.

Your skin works hard all day fighting environmental stressors like sun, pollution, and harsh weather, so give your skin the treatment it deserves and needs while you sleep. Learn how to create a nighttime skincare routine so you’ll wake up with smoother, plumper, more resilient skin.

Why You Should Moisturize Your Face at Night

While you sleep, your body enters repair mode, working to restore damage and strengthen the skin’s barrier which is why hydrating your skin is a key part of the recovery process.

Your Skin Repairs Itself at Night

Many things happen to your skin at night. There’s an increase in blood flow to the skin which fuels skin cell regeneration to help repair damage that has happened to your skin during the day, and supports rebuilding collagen and elastin fibers—both key to keeping skin firm and youthful. At the same time your skin is working to repair itself, TEWL increases overnight, so without the right skincare products that replenish hydration and antioxidant defense, your skin can lose significant moisture while you sleep. The result: skin that feels tight, dry, or looks dull.

Hydrated Skin Helps it Repair at Night

When your skin cells are hydrated, this supports the enzymes that shed dead skin cells to get healthy, glowing skin. By hydrating your skin at night, this strengthens your skin's natural barrier. Your skin’s barrier is what locks in moisture and keeps irritants out. If your skin is dehydrated, the repair process isn’t as quick, your skin barrier can become compromised, and you may see an increase in sensitive, flaky skin. Fine lines may be more prominent if your skin is dehydrated because the cells have lost their plumpness. By hydrating your skin at night, this will support your skin’s ability to give you a beautiful, healthier complexion.