Sleepmaxxing, a term that's amassed millions of views across TikTok, promises to transform everything from your productivity and mood to your lifespan and skin health. As the name suggests, it involves optimising what we all spend around a third of our lives doing: sleeping.
When I first heard about sleepmaxxing, I dismissed it as another wellness trend overcomplicating something we do without thinking, and then perimenopause reared its head and, well, desperation had me rethinking all things sleep. As someone who never really had an issue sleeping (I just liked a lot of it), I found the unpredictable night sweats that woke me up at all hours of the night, the inability to fall back asleep as easily as I once did, and the nighttime anxiety that saw me lying in bed for hours unable to sleep – all left me feeling exhausted come morning. But I didn’t only feel rough; I looked rough too.
My skin was drier, duller and more reactive. Hormonal breakouts lingered for longer, redness became harder to calm, and that healthy glow I used to sport seemed to disappear overnight. My instinct was to switch up my skincare and book in for some hardcore aesthetic treatments, but as I started to research how best to get my glow back, I realised ‘beauty sleep’ isn’t just a phrase.
The Science of Sleepmaxxing
We may think of sleep as relaxing ‘downtime’, but our bodies are hard at work while we’re catching zzz’s. "All functions that have to do with regeneration, healing, growing and system maintenance happen while we sleep. This applies to all body systems, think, muscle growth, wound healing, immune modulation and brain programming. It is as fundamental a function as eating and breathing," reveals consultant neurologist and sleep physician at longevity hospital Reborne, Dr Oliver Bernath.
Poor sleep usually shows up first as sleepiness, reduced focus, lower performance and a shorter temper. “Over time, if it continues, it can also affect appetite, immune function and raise cardiovascular and metabolic risk. In simple terms, poor sleep doesn't just make you tired; it makes it harder for both your body and mind to function well," says Oura Senior Director of Product Science, Mari Karsikas.
We cycle through light sleep, deep slow-wave sleep and REM (rapid eye movement) sleep several times each night, with each stage performing a different role. "Light sleep is no less important than deep sleep," says Bernath. "It's simply easier to wake someone from it. Deep sleep seems to have more to do with system maintenance of vital functions, while REM sleep has more to do with creativity and new learning, and light sleep contributes to memory formation and learning," he explains.
But when it comes to our skin, deep sleep is key. “Growth hormone secretion peaks in the first few hours of deep sleep, and this is what drives skin cell turnover and collagen production. Blood flow to the skin also increases, delivering more oxygen and nutrients to support that repair work.
Meanwhile, cortisol—which breaks down collagen and increases oil production and inflammation when chronically elevated—is naturally at its lowest during deep sleep. This means that for some hours the skin can focus on rebuilding without having to defend itself at the same time,” reveals aesthetic doctor, Alicia Gonzalez-Fernandez.
However, despite the fact that when sleep is disrupted the brain prioritises deep sleep, there’s only so much of it that you can get if you’re not asleep for long enough, says Bernath. That’s why, according to Gonzalez-Fernandez, “people with consistently poor sleep show significantly more visible signs of skin ageing and conditions like acne and hyperpigmentation than good sleepers. And while skincare can support the skin's environment, it can’t replace the growth hormone release and collagen synthesis that happens during deep sleep."
With this in mind, I wondered if consistent ‘good’ sleep would translate into healthier skin and rid me of my skin woes? And there was only one way to find out, so I spent six months putting the most popular sleepmaxxing hacks to the test; here’s how it went…
Beauty sleep isn't just a phrase.
The Benefits of Sleep Tracking
While I know health trackers can trigger anxiety and perfectionism, I am a big fan of data. So, I was willing to run the risk of getting a little addicted to my sleep scores if it meant I’d get a better understanding of my perimenopause symptoms and how they were impacting my sleep patterns.
The Oura Health & Fitness Tracker Smart Ring, from £229.99, felt like the best option for this, not only does it monitor how long you sleep, it tracks the quality and architecture of your sleep too, measuring how much time you spend awake, in light sleep, deep sleep and REM sleep, alongside metrics such as your resting heart rate, heart rate variability (HRV), respiratory rate, body temperature and overnight movement to generate a daily Sleep Score and Readiness Score. Worn on your finger, where, according to Oura, blood flow can be measured more accurately than at the wrist, the ring combines these physiological signals to build a detailed picture of how well you've recovered overnight.
I discovered very quickly that on the nights I had woken up drenched in sweat, I experienced more fragmented sleep, and I generally slept less too. And while knowing how this perimenopause symptom impacted my sleep didn’t mean I knew how to stop it from happening, it did mean the Oura AI could tell me when I typically experienced night sweats, which meant I could pre-empt them and plan accordingly – think keeping my room cool, ditching my duvet, wearing breathable clothes and sleeping on top of a towel. Over time this meant I sweated less and slept better.
Another interesting insight the ring gave me was my chronotype, a measure of my body's natural sleep-wake preference. Rather than simply telling me to go to bed earlier, it identified that I’m an evening type, confirming that my body naturally prefers a later bedtime. It was surprisingly reassuring because I’ve had periods when I’ve forced myself to go to bed early, only to twiddle my thumbs for hours and feel like a failure for not being able to sleep before midnight.
"Society tends to favour morning people. But humans evolved with different chronotypes. Meaning sleep before midnight isn't automatically better for everyone. Consistency, getting enough sleep, and aligning with your own circadian rhythm matters more," reveals Karsikas. Bernath agrees, warning that, "the most important thing is to keep the 24-hour body clock stable. Getting up at the same time every morning, followed by exposure to bright light, is the most important change people can make." So, instead of feeding my anxiety, my Oura Ring also helped me implement a consistent time for bed and for waking up, which dramatically improved my sleep and readiness scores.
Mouth Taping Isn't For Everyone
One of the most talked about sleepmaxxing trends has to be mouth taping. The theory is that encouraging nasal breathing may reduce snoring and improve sleep quality. "If you breathe through the mouth, you get a dry mouth, a higher risk of sore throats and infections too," explains Bernath. Not only that, but mouth breathing pushes the jaw and tongue further back, increasing the risk of obstructive sleep apnoea, which, according to Bernath, is “a hugely underdiagnosed epidemic.” It occurs when the muscles in the throat relax too much during sleep, causing the airway to repeatedly narrow or collapse. “Each time this happens, the brain briefly wakes the person to reopen the airway, fragmenting sleep, often without them realising it. This cycle repeats throughout the night, often leaving people feeling tired despite spending enough time in bed,” adds Bernath.
I wasn’t sure I actually slept with my mouth open but I gave mouth taping a go just in case. However, I didn’t last long as it felt restrictive having my mouth taped shut, and by morning I’d wake up with it stuck to my sheet, having removed it in the night. The reason I kept taking it off could lie in the fact that for those of us with deviated septums (when the bone separating your nostrils is off centre), “mouth taping may not succeed, as the brain generally doesn't like breathing through a nostril that's too narrow," reveals Bernath. So, while he agrees it can be helpful, it only works if your anatomy allows for it.
Magnesium Boost
Oftentimes it’s hard to know if your supplements are working, especially if you’re taking a fair few. But I wasn’t taking anything at all when I added a dose of magnesium into my nightly wind-down routine. So, when I started noticing an improvement in my sleep, I was convinced that it was playing a major role.
“Magnesium is an essential mineral that helps regulate hundreds of processes throughout the body, including those involved in relaxing the nervous system, muscle function and preparing the body for sleep. It’s not a sleeping pill, but it does help the body to relax, which makes it easier to fall asleep,” explains Bernath. Not all forms of magnesium work in the same way, so for sleep it’s best to take magnesium (bis)glycinate as it combines magnesium with the amino acid glycine, which has calming properties of its own, and is less likely to cause digestive side effects than forms such as magnesium oxide or citrate.
I alternated between Elle Sera Magnesium Bisglycinate, from £28 and Artah Essential Magnesium, from £16.80, throughout my experiment. It didn't stop my night sweats or suddenly give me eight uninterrupted hours of sleep, but my Oura ring confirmed I was falling asleep quicker when taking it and I attribute that to how well it helped quieten my mental chatter at bedtime. I felt calmer, less physically restless and generally found it easier to drift off and stay asleep—I don’t go to bed without it now.
Skincare Designed for Sleep
Technically aligning your skincare with your body’s natural nighttime functions isn’t exactly sleepmaxxing, but rather skinmaxxing. However, I knew that by using what I’ve learnt about what’s happening to my skin while I sleep and then supporting my skin with some skincare switches, it would ultimately help me get my clear, even-toned, glowing complexion back faster.
“When deep sleep is consistently cut short, collagen production slows, cell renewal slows, and the skin's ability to repair daily micro-damage from UV or pollution falls behind. It's one of the reasons chronic poor sleep ages skin faster than almost any other lifestyle factor,” says Gonzalez-Fernandez. Add the impact on hormonal regulation that poor sleep has and this all translates into dull, dehydrated, pigmented, spotty, and wrinkled skin.
Gonzalez-Fernandez recommends retinoids, vitamin C, peptides, BHAs, AHAs, SPF and barrier repair actives like ceramides. At night, I kept things simple; I double-cleansed with the PCA Face Wash Oily/Problem, £39, which removes dirt, makeup, and excess oil while still being gentle on my barrier. I followed that with the Klira Special, from £59, a personalised prescription retinoid that’s combined with other actives to boost collagen production and speed up cell turnover. Come morning, I cleansed with the niacinamide-packed Vichy Fresh Cleansing Gel, £14, and followed this with the Sachi Skin Triphala Pigmentation Corrector, £90, to help even out my skin and get my glow back, thanks to anti-inflammatory and antibacterial Triphala, plus pigment-busting niacinamide and tranexamic acid. I then topped that with the Klira The Dayscript, from £66, which offers a full eight hours of sun protection, combined with additional personalised actives to support skin health. Finally, once a week I use the hydrating Kama Vanasara Rose Hydrating Mask, £46, and the Revision Triple Action Exfoliator, £80, to smooth, soften and brighten my skin.
Sachi Skin
Sachi Skin Triphala Pigmentation Corrector 30ml
Vichy
Vichy Pureté Thermale One Step Fresh Cleansing Gel for Sensitive Skin and Eyes 200ml
PCA Skin
Pca Skin Facial Wash Oily/problem
The Verdict
So, did sleepmaxxing actually improve my skin? For me, the answer has to be a resounding yes. It took time, but the lines I’d developed around my eyes disappeared—note I think they were from dehydration rather than collagen loss, since my routine was already pretty stacked in collagen-boosting actives. The redness dissipated, my skin tone was more even, my skin was no longer as oily, and breakouts reduced in number and frequency.
I looked so much better, and I felt better too. I love that my Oura ring keeps me in the know regarding all things sleep, and I’m thrilled that adding magnesium to my routine has helped me doze off quicker.
But I can absolutely see why both Bernath and Oura believe the most important element of getting good sleep (and enough of it) is consistent timing—because sleeping at around the same time every night and waking up at the same time every morning (in accordance with my chronotype) has changed the game when it comes to my sleep and my skin.
