Your hair health is tied to so much more than what you eat, your lifestyle, or even your hydration. You might be surprised to find out that your sleep—and the quality of it—can impact how healthy your hair is and whether or not you experience hair loss. Why is this the case, and how can we improve our hair health? This article will answer these questions so you’ll know how to encourage better hair and enjoy adequate rest.
Before we get into how you can optimize your sleep and bedroom environment for optimal hair health, let’s first explore why sleep quality impacts hair health. You’ll be surprised at just how much your sleep can affect this part of your well-being!
How Does Sleep Quality Impact Hair Health?
Believe it or not, your sleep quality affects more than just your energy levels but also your hair health. Studies have demonstrated that poor rest may lead to several concerns, including alopecia. Sleep disorders have actually been labeled as a risk factor for alopecia in many patients (Source: Natural Medicine Journal). Not only that, but stress, which also impacts your sleep quality, can affect your hair health, too.
How Stress Can Lead to Hair Loss
Stress can be a real health problem and even our hair. If you want long, luscious locks, then you should do your best to avoid stress. Stress has been shown to have a massive impact on your hair health, specifically on the hair follicles. The damage that occurs to your hair because of stress may contribute to hair loss and thinning, which is a real downside for those who face consistent stressors in their lives. In fact, you can actually measure the amount of cortisol in the body within your hair, as it is a biomarker for specific disorders.
Thus, you can see how stress impacts your hair—especially since it is easily detectable in it! Now, you might wonder how to optimize your sleep to combat these challenges. Fortunately, you can encourage better sleep quality to enhance your hair health, and we will explore a few strategies you can implement in your life.
Optimizing Your Sleep for Enhanced Hair Health
When it comes to optimizing your sleep for enhanced hair health, there are several strategies you can use. Some of the obvious ones you might have already gathered include reducing the stress in your life and getting to bed at a reasonable time, but there are also some others that you can use to optimize your sleep, encourage better rest, and ultimately, contribute to your hair’s improved health and appearance.
Use the Right Pillowcases
Your bedroom should be an ideal setting for you to get rest at night, but you should also ensure you have the right products on your bed. One thing people often overlook that can contribute to better rest and better hair health is choosing the right pillowcase. Silk is an excellent choice for many who want to avoid dry and frizzy hair, but it can also help you stay cool at night. Laying on these offers a cooler, softer, and even gentler feel for your head while you sleep (Source: Vogue).
To really enhance the benefits, don’t put your hair in a bun or braid if you have long hair, and don’t go to bed with wet hair. This will help you get better hair while also encouraging more restful, comfortable sleep.
Ensure You’re Sleeping the Whole Night
This might go without saying, but improving your hair health by optimizing your sleep means ensuring that you sleep the whole night and are not sleep-deprived. There is nothing you can do to enhance your hair's health if you cannot get enough sleep. It’s true—no amount of supplements can help you if you aren’t getting enough rest. One study conducted on adults showed that poor sleep quality is associated with worse hair pulling for those with trichotillomania (TTM), which can lead to recurrent hair pulling and hair loss.
Insomnia and sleep apnea can also disrupt sleep, leading to less beneficial rest and, ultimately, more stress on the body, which can increase the likelihood of hair loss and poor hair health. That is why it is so important to ensure you’re sleeping the whole night: to ensure your body is healing and recovering and your hair health is also boosted.
Massage Your Scalp as Part of Your Bedtime Routine
If you want to optimize your sleep routine and hair health, a scalp massage might be the perfect choice. Not only will this relax you, but it will also encourage better circulation on your scalp, which is essential for your hair to grow. Researchers discovered that scalp massages helped to stabilize hair loss and even encouraged regrowth after 24 weeks. The reason for this was the increase in blood flow in the scalp, which led to excellent hair health for both men and women (Source: MDPI).
The best part is that you only need a few minutes to do this. In the study, the men and women only did a scalp massage for about five minutes. So, try this out before you go to bed tonight. Not only will you relax and unwind, but you’ll also be encouraging better hair health too!
How Will You Encourage Healthier Hair?
Encouraging healthier hair by optimizing your sleep is easier than you might think. Because hair health is tied to sleep and stress levels, you should take steps to alleviate your stress. Not only that, but you can focus on using the right pillowcases, getting consistent and uninterrupted sleep, and even implementing regular scalp massages for proper blood flow.
These tips will help you enhance your hair health tenfold, leading to that gorgeous head of hair you’ve been after. For more information about sleep health, check out our website for more articles on research from the field.
