Getting plenty of sleep can help with good cognition, immunity, heart health, and maintaining a healthy weight. It also helps the body to repair and renew overnight.

If you’ve noticed that your skin is starting to show more signs of visible aging, this could also be linked to your sleep habits.

It’s not just the amount you sleep you get. Your sleeping position can also play a part, particularly when it comes to wrinkles.

HOW LACK OF SLEEP AFFECTS YOUR SKIN

Your skin can suffer when you don’t get enough sleep and it can make wrinkles more of a problem.

The body works hard to remove excess water and balance hydration levels during sleep and if this doesn’t happen, it can be a factor in premature aging.

This can be exaggerated if lack of sleep means the skin isn’t able to repair itself fully overnight — this can contribute to the breakdown of cells and visible signs of aging.

This is partly because the skin experiences increased blood flow during sleep and tries to boost collagen and repair damage.

Producing collagen as you sleep helps to keep skin plumper and supple and hold fine lines and wrinkles at bay for longer.

Since collagen production naturally reduces with age, poor sleep can further increase the potential for fine lines, wrinkles, and other signs of premature aging.

Even one night of poor sleep can start to encourage wrinkles to develop so it’s really crucial to get a good night’s sleep to help fight premature aging and minimize the effects of culprits such as sun damage.

HOW TO AVOID WRINKLES WHILE YOU SLEEP

Your sleeping position can make wrinkles more likely, especially if you love to sleep on your side.

It can exaggerate neck and chest wrinkles due to the effects of gravity.

When you’re on your side, one breast will fall on top of the other.

This can create temporary chest “creases” in between your breasts (and often elsewhere on your chest too) when you wake up in the morning.

Over time, these chest creases can become permanent chest wrinkles.

If you wear a larger bra size, this can be more likely.

This is also down to gravity as the added weight of your breasts can mean that chest wrinkles become permanent more quickly.

Factors such as sun damage, dehydration, and lack of collagen can also increase the potential for chest creases to turn into permanent wrinkles.

Chest wrinkles are often associated with getting older but they can start to develop at any age, especially if you've slept on your side for years and/or have dry, thin or damaged skin on your chest.

Many younger women struggle with chest wrinkles that make their cleavage look "older" because of these factors.

Protecting the skin on your neck and chest from sun damage, staying well hydrated and keeping skin moisturized can help to make chest wrinkles look less prominent but you'll often need to take extra steps to stop them developing or deepening.

Sleeping on your back is often recommended as the best way to keep wrinkles at bay but not everyone is a fan.

Training yourself to sleep on your back can be a big challenge and lots of people find it difficult to avoid rolling over during the night.

If you’re a long-time side sleeper, you may not enjoy sleeping on your back and this may affect the amount of rest you achieve and its quality.

That doesn't mean you have to accept chest wrinkles as inevitable though.

Taking steps to fight back against gravity can help avoid them without having to switch to sleeping on your back.

With the Intimia Breast Pillow, you can still sleep on your side and you don’t need to worry about how gravity is affecting your chest.

This is perfect if you've already started to notice chest wrinkles and want to prevent them from becoming more obvious or if you want to stop them becoming an issue at all.

How you sleep can also encourage neck wrinkles, especially if your neck is in the same position for much of the night.

Keeping your neck straight while you sleep can protect against neck wrinkles without disturbing your sleep.

This is a lot easier if you're using a neck pillow that's designed with this in mind. The Intimia Neck Pillow fits between your chin and chest to help smooth existing neck wrinkles and stop new ones developing.

Including the Intimia Neck Pillow and the Intimia Breast Pillow in your bedtime routine helps support a restful night’s sleep and minimizes formation of new chest and neck wrinkles.