Can changing your sleep change your face?

Not a question you'd normally ask yourself.

But I did for a simple reason, I noticed quite big changes in how I look over the last 4 years.

I've always been very self-conscious about how I look all my life.

At school, I was called ugly and it's been a hidden pain I've kept with me since.

I spent large amounts of money on face products, fashion, supplements, and botox to name a few things.

Perhaps my time and money could have been better placed?

In this article, I cover both the science and my practical experience over the following topics.

Fat loss and sleep

Skin and sleep

Hair and sleep

Mewing/breathing and sleep

Mood and sleep

If you'd rather use video format, save this video to watch or listen to later.

Body fat and sleep. 

You may not know this, but Sleep is one of the best fat-losing secrets that exist. Sleep impacts 2 key hormones, Ghrelin and Leptin. When we sleep badly the balance of these goes the wrong way making us hungrier and slowing our metabolism. This 2022 study showed that a control group who slept less on average consumed an extra 270 calories a day. That is like having an extra Mars bar or pack of Cheetos every day!

This paper showed that people who undersleep also seem more likely to snack and eat high-fat foods.

And the results from this study are honestly, incredible. 

I’d say it’s pretty safe to say sleep will impact diet and fat loss. Which has major impact on how we look. 

Skin quality from sleep

There are good studies linking sleep to aging and specifically skin health. 

Check this study 

The sleep foundation have a really interesting blog about this and you’ll see sleep can impact both wrinkles, puffy eyes and hair. 

On the topic of hair, here is my hairline back in 2020 vs 2024.

There are quite a few studies highlighting how sleep can impact hair loss, here are some examples.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8973252/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9793131/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35469370/

Yet despite this, you’ll very rarely see people talk about sleep when it comes to hair loss.

Could sleep have impacted my hair and quality, nearly certainly yes. 

Mewing/breathing and sleep.

Nasal breathing and mewing. I learned about mewing about 3-4 years ago. Let's be totally honest, the science on it isn’t there. So it is a case of anecdotal evidence. But there is enough at the very least to know that breathing through our mouths can in the long term impact how we look. Watch this short clip of me speaking with Karen Parker, who is an expert in nasal breathing.

So where does this tie in with sleep? Well, I have mild sleep apnea and I was sleeping on my back, so as a bi-product I was snoring. Ie, breathing through my mouth. This has been happening for likely over 15+ years. 

As I’m doing this over the night time, it also means I was more likely to mouth breathe during the day. To make things worse, I had a deviated septum, which means one of my nostrils was obstructed. Which basically meant I couldn't breathe well meaning I was more likely to breathe through my mouth. 

In terms of what I have done about this. 

I did start with mouth taping at night. If you wanna learn more about it check out my video on mouth tape. This meant I was essentially nasal breathing at night time. It is a controversial topic, where there is no scientific consensus as of this writing.

I got septoplasty surgery in 2023 and this was basically to fix my nasal breathing. Since then I am consistently breathing through my nose during sleep. You can check out my video on septoplasty here. Hence, my tongue is more often at the roof of my mouth. 

If mewing and nasal breathing do actually work, then this could be an explanation for why I look different now. But this is pure speculation, I can’t prove it!

Mood and Sleep

Let's be honest. No one looks good when they are sad. You can tell a fake smile a mile away. 

It impacts everything in your life and real charisma comes from how you feel. 

I hope I don’t need to explain the science of sleep and mood. You with a good night's sleep is another person compared to you with a bad night's sleep.

Hence I think this factors heavily in my pictures. 

Conclusion:

Sleep will impact the way you look. Not just the days you don't sleep well, but over many months and years. Was it the key factor in my transformation? Yes and no.

It’s obvious that things like haircuts, mental health, going to the gym, fashion and skincare amongst many things change how you look. Plus I’m not exactly a model these days, but, improvement is an improvement. Sleep clearly has a significant impact based on the science alone.

Do you agree with my assessment? Ps, I’m not looking to make anyone out there feel anxious about how they look and worry about their sleep.

What I do want to get out there is that you have more control over your life than you think. If you want a better life, I really recommend making sleep one of, if not your top priority.

If you want help on that journey, you know what to do.