Hyoumankind met with Dr Joanna Romanowska a Cosmetic Medicine Practitioner and asked her a series of questions in relation to wrinkles, the different types, how they are formed and how they can be avoided.
What are the different types of wrinkles?
One of the effects of aging on the skin is the development of lines or wrinkles. The wrinkles are classified into dynamic or static wrinkles depending on how they are formed. Dynamic wrinkles appear during (and are caused by) facial expressions (also called expression lines), while static lines are unrelated to movement or expressions.
What are Expression Wrinkles?
Expression lines are created by muscle contractions during expressions of emotion. Over decades the constant repetition of facial expressions like frowning, smiling, pursing of the mouth or squinting, eventually leaves lasting lines such as frown lines, crow’s feet and smile lines. Treatments such as Botox can work by reducing excessive movement or strength of the muscle activity, which causes the deepening of the lines. This allows the skin’s normal repair properties to gradually reduce or eventually eliminate expression lines.
What are Sleep Wrinkles?
Sleep wrinkles are static lines and are not caused by muscle movement. They can be caused by repeated compression of the face against pillows, while sleeping on one’s side or stomach. Initially, the skin bounces back from being scrunched and compressed overnight, with the lines smoothing and disappearing during the day. Unfortunately, with loss of collagen and elasticity of the skin associated with aging, these lines on the face, neck and cleavage gradually begin to persist through the day and become ever deeper.
Botox cannot treat these areas as they are not caused by a contracting muscle. Dermal fillers can be useful to treat some cases, but the ongoing scrunching of the affected area every night renders the results temporary.
How do Sleep Wrinkles Form?
Sleeping on one’s side causes marks and vertical creases to appear on the face and chest. This position also reinforces and deepens vertical expression wrinkles like frown lines and lines around the mouth area. When one favours sleeping on one side over the other, the deeper lines on the favoured side make it obvious to see which side it is. Stomach sleepers may also notice the appearance of forehead wrinkles.
How do Chest wrinkles form?
Similarly to the formation of sleep wrinkles on the face, sleeping on the side or stomach scrunches the chest or décolletage, damaging the skin in that area and causing vertical lines.
The Solution – Hyoumankind Back Sleep Pillow
The only way to prevent sleep wrinkles is to stop sleeping on the side or stomach. For many people this is easier said than done, as lifetime habits are typically very difficult to break. Some people really struggle to learn to fall asleep on their back, and even those who are good at training themselves to go to sleep on their backs, often wake up on their side, having turned over during sleep.
The Hyoumankind Back Sleep Pillow is an excellent way to assist learning to sleep on one’s back and to stay on the back once asleep. The benefits of back-sleeping are many and include medical as well as cosmetic benefits. Some of the cosmetic benefits are smoother skin with fewer wrinkles, refreshed or less tired-looking skin, a rested visage including reduced puffiness of the eyes, fewer skin breakouts and
better sleep.
With long-term use, it is expected that due to the normal repair properties of skin, existing sleep wrinkles and skin texture will continue to improve and new or deepening sleep wrinkles will be prevented. With the skin of the face, neck and décolletage no longer being compressed on a nightly basis, the effect of various skin treatments (Filler, skin needling, peels, laser, surgery etc.) will be enhanced and the duration of the effects extended.
Dr. Joanna Romanowska, MBChB, FRNZCGP, FNZCAM. Cosmetic Medicine Practitioner and owner of Clinic 42. Clinic 42 is a boutique, cosmetic medicine, beauty and laser therapy clinic in Auckland’s suburb of Epsom, offering a comprehensive range of the most up-to-date, medically-based and researched, non surgical cosmetic procedures, skin enhancement, laser and beauty therapy.
