Dispatches from the world of high-performance, science-driven skincare, here - each week

I haven’t been sleeping well, lately. Thanks to the cruel affliction that’s commonly known as hay fever (but is far too gentle a name for something so horrific and tedious and debilitating), and the ensuing tight chest that it creates - I’m told quite bluntly that I’m also snoring like a demon at the moment - I wake up at about 3.30am each morning on the dot. After struggling to get back to sleep for what feels like 17 hours, I wake up at 6.30pm, take a fleeting glance in the mirror and realise one very real truth: our bodies, our faces, our skin – they all need sleep. They look and feel pretty awful without it. 

We can fill our lives with complicated fitness gadgets, eat our body-weight in super foods and pile on expensive skin creams but it’s virtually impossible to compete with the refining, renewing and youthenising magic dust that is sleep. The effects of a lack of sleep are written - literally, in little lines and unexpected contours – all over the face. Yet, remarkably, up until now this very truth hadn’t ever been proven as a directly influencing factor in the way the skin behaves. 

Estee Lauder – the brand most synonymous with the beauty-giving nature of a nightly kip thanks to its iconic, 31 year old skin serum, Advanced Night Repair – has commissioned a ground-breaking study into the effects of sleep quality on skin ageing and function with University Hospitals Case Medical Center. The test combined 30 women with a poor quality of sleep and 30 women with good quality sleep, all between 30 and 49 years old.

"The effects of a lack of sleep are written - literally, in little lines and unexpected contours – all over the face"

Each participant was then evaluated during four separate visits over one week. Investigators found signs of intrinsic ageing such as fine lines, uneven pigmentation, slackening of the skin were twice as great in poor quality sleepers as they were in good quality sleepers. Plus, poor sleepers showed a 30% greater rate of water loss, a weaker recovery from sunburn and a dulled complexion. As if they don’t have enough to battle against.

All of which proves – if nothing else – that currently, I need all the night time skin help I can get. And so, not content on finally proving what we’ve all suspected for years, the scientists at Estee Lauder have also upgraded its aforementioned Advanced Night Repair serum based on six years of research into sleep and skin. 

Having discovered a specific nighttime cellular renewal process called ‘Catabolysis’, the new version of ANR – now known as Advanced Night Repair Synchronized Recovery Complex II, £43. Yes, I know Catabolysis sounds like the expensive part of a Ford Mondeo but it’s actually far more sophisticated than that. A natural purification process responsible for removing ‘cell debris’ that builds up over time and contributes to a dull and puffy complexion.

The new formula contains algae and yeast extracts to support the body’s Catabolysis activity. And in keeping with the vein of breaking new ground through studies, Estee Lauder tested the serum on over 1,000 women of all ethnicities. 83% reported an improved complexion over six weeks, with skin that appeared healthier and more rested. So effectively, no matter whether you’re a good sleeper or a poor sleeper, it makes your skin work harder during the hours you are asleep. No news as to whether it conquers snoring, however. 

Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair Synchronized Recovery Complex II, £48