Tired of looking tired? You're not alone

Recently we asked our community of customers and Instagram followers to tell us a little bit about sleep – how much you’re all getting as well as how it affects your skin. And honestly, we were staggered when we read the replies. 96% of you said that looking tired bothers you. While 84% of you aren’t sleeping well – which for the majority of you is impacting your skin. Not good, but not surprising either.

We put our heads together and came up with a plan. A month-long campaign to help support you, with pointers on how to improve rest, optimise your skin’s chance to repair overnight and minimise the damage caused by lack of sleep.

The September reset

Why now? No matter your age, the feeling of a new term reset each September never goes away.

But while summer holidays may have been a time to recharge as a child, adults are more often than not left feeling depleted by September following a summer of nuptials, travel and juggling complex childcare logistics.

So if ever your skin needed help to look and feel well-rested, it's now.

Sleep and your skin

Getting enough quality sleep isn’t just important for our everyday mood and productivity. From decreased collagen production to a compromised skin barrier (hello flare-ups), it has a direct impact on our skin’s health and appearance too. If you’re keen to understand the science behind it – you’ll love our expert’s guide to sleep and how it affects your skin here.

When we asked our community what bothers them the most when they don’t get enough sleep; dehydration, dark circles, dullness, flare-ups and increased blemishes came up time and time again.

While there’s no replacement for actually getting a good night’s sleep, there are things we can do to minimise these negative effects – to help skin look and feel its best.

Routine reset

It’s not just the direct impact of sleep deprivation that can impact sensitive skin. Indirectly, the sluggishness and exhaustion that ensues can affect our daily habits.

For Pai customers specifically, you said that missing out on sleep caused you to skip important steps in your skincare routine – including active-rich face oils (36%), sunscreen (23%) and (this one really upsets us) cleansing (12%).

Although hard to prioritise when the alternative is climbing into bed earlier or lingering there a few minutes longer each morning, maintaining a consistent routine is so important for sensitive skin.

The active ingredients inside will help replenish the nutrients lost when we’re low on sleep, and a comforting evening routine itself helps signal to the body that it's time to unwind – which helps promote better sleep afterwards.

Your sleep-well hacks

We didn’t just ask you to share your negative experiences. We also asked you to share the tips and tricks that help you sleep better.

The most popular advice? Almost a third of you try to reduce screen time or read before bed. This one we really love: 27% put on fresh sheets – while 17% use meditation and sleep aids to drift off. We approve – and we’d add a good wind-down skincare routine to get you relaxed and ready to drift off too.

Want more strategies to tackle tiredness? Each week this September we’ll share advice from our in-house sensitive skin pros as well as sleep experts to help reset your own sleep routine, for a well-rested, radiant Q4.

Make sure you’ve subscribed to our newsletter to get all of our #SleepandSkin advice and inspiration – plus you’ll find our new sensitive skin sleep toolkit and updates here.