Taking your makeup off is the last thing you want to do after a long day. The thought of getting up to take makeup off when you’re tired enough to fall asleep seems like a mammoth task. Many people often forget to do so the later it gets in the night, especially if they have been drinking. You may be tempted to forget to take it off just the once, thinking there is no harm done, but the effects can often be immediate.
Short-Term Results
You could wake up tomorrow morning with an eye infection or allergic reaction from your eye makeup. With your face in the pillow, you are rubbing it into your eye further – even into your eyeball. This can cause pink eye or bloodshot eyes. Your eyes will likely be painful and itchy the next day, and cleaning your eye won’t necessarily undo a night’s damage.
If you have sensitive skin, one bad night without good skincare can cause spots. Avoiding cleansing your skin of dirt and chemicals will aggravate and dry out your skin. Your pores will also get clogged, which will take extra skincare to remove. Clogged pores contribute to the build up of dirt and oil that cause acne breakouts and create dry, worse-looking skin.
Long-Term Results of Frequent Sleeping in Makeup
You may have heard a news story about an Australian woman who caused serious eye damage after years of sleeping with mascara on. Cases like this are rare, but long-term damage is still a real danger.
Frequent sleeping in makeup will cause all the short term issues of your eyes and skin to worsen. This makes it far harder to treat. Eye infections in particular can be stubborn to get rid of and may result in a trip to your doctor. If you aren’t fan of putting in eye drops, it’s best to avoid needing medication in the first place. Allergic reactions like eczema on your skin can take a while to clear up.
If you also hate washing your bedsheets, wearing makeup to bed is a quick way to make your sheets dirty. As you move around in your sleep, especially on your pillow, makeup gets rubbed into the fabric of your bedding. This makes sheets instantly dirty and hard to clean. Sleeping with makeup often will lead to a major buildup of bacteria.
Long term damage from makeup in bed can lead to premature ageing. As you sleep, your body creates new cells that replace the old, dead cells. Collagen is released, which helps keep the skin firm and youthful-looking. Old makeup traps the dead skin cells and blocks light from reaching your skin. Without this skin renewal, your skin will look older and dry, and create fine lines and wrinkles.
