Better Sleep, Better Skin

25.05.2020 By: Mathias Fleury 

Produced by brain and by skin cells, melatonin acts as a powerful antioxidant and activates cellular protection. However, daily digital exposure disrupts skin melatonin production, leading to premature skin ageing and disturbing sleep-related functions.

Sleeping is one of the bestknown beauty secrets. Regular peaceful nights give our skin a clear and radiant complexion. The opposite leads to dull and tired skin. If everyone seeks skin as perfect as possible, they should know that without restful sleep most of the applied products will have limited effectiveness. A recent study reveals that 80% of people globally are dissatisfied with their sleep quality. Other studies indicate that 68% of US consumers struggle to fall asleep or stay asleep while 50% of Brits fail to get their recommended seven hours of sleep per night. The reason? The daily melatonin rhythm cycle has been disturbed.

Sleep disorders

Melatonin is a well-known sleep-related hormone naturally secreted by our organism (brain and skin), on a daily rhythm cycle. If it is well-known for its crucial role in our capacity to fall asleep and in our sleep quality, it has other lesser-known properties such as being a powerful anti-ageing agent, thanks to its strong antioxidant properties, as described by the literature. When exposed to digital stress (electronic devices, artificial and blue light…) melatonin production rhythm is disturbed, ending up in skin ageing (mostly due to a loss of antioxidant defences and damage to mitochondria) and a perturbation of the sleep-related functions (difficulty to fall asleep, waking-up several times at night, morning fatigue). This results in a vicious circle of premature skin ageing, with skin more exposed to external aggressions and unable to restore itself during resting phases of the human body. In a world where consumers are also convinced of the strong link between sleep quality and skin health, it becomes clear that melatonin protection is a key solution for both well-ageing and well-being.

Against digital stress

Researchers have investigated specific tetraterpenoids, generally known for their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory benefits. The tetraterpenoids crocin and crocetin have been identified as having additional benefits against blue light and UV radiations, as well as for their ability to improve sleep quality. Gardenia jasminoides J. Ellis fruit extract, rich in tetraterpenoids with an important absorption ability when it comes to high energy visible light, could act as a natural filter of blue light. This will result in anti-ageing and well-being properties, by regulating and improving the sleep cycle with its protective action on skin melatonin. Relying on the NaDES technology (NAtural Deep Eutectic Solvent), experts in green fractionation crafted a stabilised gardenia fruit extract enriched in crocin¹. With further collaboration from experts in skin biology, physiology and skin microbiomics, they demonstrated that crocin not only protects the natural skin melatonin cycle and acts as a powerful antioxidant but can also be converted into crocetin by the skin microflora, triggering the same biological receptors as melatonin (MT1R). Gardenia fruit extract offers an exclusive and unique dual mode of action, behaving as a blue light filter and as a vegetal melatonin- like molecule, activating biological mechanisms of skin repair and defences connected to the circadian rhythm, ultimately linked to well-being.

Better nights

Gardenia fruit extract preserves the cutaneous production of melatonin when skin is exposed to a source of digital stress thanks to its blue light absorbing properties. Melatonin can therefore achieve its natural role of fighting against the deleterious effects of digital pollution on skin. Furthermore, thanks to its activation by the skin microbiome into a vegetal melatonin-like molecule, the ingredient can take an active part in the skin‘s defences and well-being mechanisms. Clinical tests have highlighted that ardenia fruit extract reverses visible signs of ageing (-21% fewer wrinkles versus placebo) while contributing to a general improvement of volunteers’ sleep quality (ease of falling asleep, the number of nighttime awakenings down by -87%). Gardenia fruit extract is a natural ingredient to fight against the damages of digital stress, both for preventing premature ageing and improving overall well-being.

Study: Improvement of sleep quality

The well-being benefits were assessed during a clinical test by analysing filled in daily logbooks of the volunteers for 56 days. The logbook was filled by the volunteers every morning in order to collect data on different parameters (source of exposure to digital stress, screen exposure duration, ease of falling asleep, number of nocturnal awakenings). It appears that the active ingredient at 2% has a significant impact on the sleep quality versus placebo, according to the perception of volunteers. It makes it easier to fall asleep (it was easy to fall asleep 90.6% of the nights versus 84.8% of the nights only with the placebo), and drastically decreasing the number of awakenings every night (20.0 of 28 nights without awakenings versus 14.3 for the placebo). The median number of times volunteers woke up each night for 28 nights was drastically reduced as well, with only 3.0 awakenings on average versus 23 for the placebo. Interestingly, the efficacy has been proven to be even better on the younger part of the panel (18 to 34 years old), making the ingredient relevant for any generation, from millennials to boomers!

References

^1. Synchronight

^2. OTC Sleep Aids, US, Nov 2019

^3. Mintel’s Sleep Aids – UK, November 2017

Mathias Fleury,

global category
manager Biotech.
Actives, Pomacle, France,

www.givaudan.com 

Published by: Cossma International

https://www.cossma.com/ingredients/article/better-sleep-better-skin-36155.html?ref=news-relbytopic&cHash=95deb7be421765875e3a1fbf8ca54fb6