All too often Acne patients wonder what the best routines to have better skin and not develop pimples, comedones, blackheads are.
Does the type of pillow on the bed have any impact on the acne we have?
Sleeping habits of boys and girls with acne have been studied and some very interesting things have been discovered. For example, people with acne are more prone to have insomnia and sleep fewer hours. When studying whether this has something to do with the hours at which we go to sleep or the type of pillow or bed we use, it was found that they are irrelevant and are not the cause of young people with acne having more insomnia. It seems that stress could lead on the one hand to have more acne and on the other to sleep less. This is what is known in Medicine as associated factors. It is not that insomnia causes acne or vice-versa, but rather, both are aggravated by the stress that this person has.
Regarding depression, is it related to acne?
Indeed, people with acne are more often depressed. It has been reported in different psychological studies that depression or pathological sadness affects almost 10% of people with acne according to some studies, around 4 or 5% according to others. This is very interesting to know because some acne patients start treatment with a famous and well-known drug, Roacutan, which is thought to cause a higher prevalence of depression and even suicide. Experts don’t have it clear if these depressions that appear are typical of the treatment itself or they are more frequent in people with acne. Recent studies suggest that the incidence of depression in people with acne is around 4.5%, which is very similar to that in the general population.
The use of moisturizers for the skin of the face is another aspect that worries patients with acne a lot. Most people who suffer from this problem follow a moisturizing regime. Taking into account that acne is caused by an obstruction of the sebaceous gland and that it produces more oil than it should, one wonders, why do acne patients who do not need hydration moisturize their skin? Moisturizing the skin is a healthy habit for people with dry skin, allergy proneness, or dermatitis, but not for people with acne.
Regarding sleep, how does it influence acne?
Acne patients generally sleep less than non-acne people. As I have mentioned before, it seems that there is an association between insomnia and acne, but it is also true that more sleep reduces stress levels and improves acne.
Acne is an obstructive problem of the hypertrophied sebaceous gland, but it is increasingly considered an inflammatory pathology of the skin. It happens more often today than 50 years ago because our sleeping and eating habits have radically worsened. A more relaxed and natural life, and a diet richer in fruits and vegetables are the best habit to have healthy skin without acne.
