Did you know lack of enough sleep can affect your sex drive, early aging, memory troubles among other issues? I got curious whether sleep affects the growth of my mane.
So, does sleep help beard growth? Sleep does affect beard growth, beard growth-stimulating hormones, protein synthesis, and follicle-stimulating hormones are released when we sleep. Lack of enough sleep or a poor sleep cycle will deprive your body of much-needed nutrients and hormones for facial hair growth. Getting 7-9 hours of sleep may help with beard growth.
Related: Does beard grow faster in summer or winter
Table of Contents
How Sleep Affects Beard Growth?
Before we get deeper into how sleep or lack of it affects beard growth, we should first understand the following facts.
The growth of the beard is solely dependant on genes androgen receptors and your levels of the androgens [testosterone and DHT]. Other factors such as ethnicity, lifestyle, and age also affect beard growth.
So to sum it up, for anything to affect beard growth it, would have to affect the sensitivity of the androgen receptors and also the levels of the androgens. With that in mind, let us dive into how sleep affects beard growth.
Testosterone and DHT
Testosterone is one of the most important androgens that affect beard growth. Without enough of this hormone, one may not be able to grow a beard. This is because testosterone is converted to its more potent form DHT and together they affect beard growth.
Sleeping or not sleeping affects your body’s levels of these androgens. Based on this small study
, men who were restricted to 5 hours of sleep a day experienced a 10-15% decrease in their levels of daytime testosterone.
Another study also found that the levels of testosterone were at their peak during the first Rapid Eye Movement (REM) and remain that way until you wake up.
What does REM mean? Sleep is divided into 5 stages.
Stage 1 refers to that moment when you drift from being awake to being asleep. This stage does not last long.
Stage 2 refers to light sleep. At this stage, you are also drifting to deeper sleep. Your heartbeat and breathing slow down and your muscles relax. At the same time, the temperature of your body decreases.
Stage 3 and 4 refer to when your body enters into deep and deepest sleep respectively.
Stage 4 is normally known as the healing stage. This is when the synthesis of most nutrients and hormones needed by the body begins.
Fast forward, the first REM cycle is also known as stage 5 begins 90 minutes after you’ve slept and reoccurs after every 90 minutes.
It is during the first REM that the levels of testosterone are at the peak and remain as such until you wake up.
This small study published here shows that 10 men experienced a 19% reduced beard hair growth rate after being deprived of 48 hours of sleep.
This effect was associated with decreased protein synthesis, depression of growth hormones, and decrease of DHT.
Affects the Beard Growth Nutrients
Just like any other part of the body, your beards need nutrients to grow. One of the most important nutrients is proteins. Beard hairs are made of a protein called keratin, and the skin is made of a protein called collagen. These two nutrients help promote beard growth when combined with other nutrients such as minerals such as zinc, iron, magnesium, fats, carbs, and many more.
As shown in this study, men experienced a 19 % decreased beard hair growth rate. This shows depriving yourself of sleep for 48 hours or lack of enough sleep will affect the synthesis of the proteins.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does your beard grow when you sleep? Yes, the growth of your beard takes place when you sleep. Tissue repair and growth take place during stage 4 of your sleep. This is most probably the same time the growth of beards takes place.
Does sleeping on one side affect beard growth? When you sleep on one side, you may end up reducing blood flow into that side hence starve your facial hair follicles and therefore affect beard growth.
Does sleep affect hair growth? Just like beard growth lack of enough sleep will also affect hair growth negatively. Getting 7-9 hours of sleep may come a long way to help with both your hair growth and skin glow.
Conclusion
While it sounds funny, lack of enough sleep can negatively impact your beard growth. However, for sleep to affect your beard growth you must be able to grow a beard naturally. Getting 7-9 hours of sleep will come along to helping you grow a beard or fill in that patchy beard.
