We’ve all been advised about the importance of geting our beauty sleep. Now, Estée Lauder is proving why: a scientific study commissioned by the brand proved that inadequate sleep is directly related to reduced skin health and leads to an acceleration of skin aging.The Effects of Sleep Quality on Skin Aging and Function shows that poor sleepers had more signs of aged skin, as well as slower recovery from negative environmental factors, such as UV light. People who were deemed poor sleepers also gave their own skin and facial appearance a worse assessment than those who slept well. “Insufficient sleep has become a worldwide epidemic,” says Elma Baron, M.D., director of the Skin Study Center at UH Case Medical Center and associate professor of Dermatology at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. “While chronic sleep deprivation has been linked to medical problems, such as obesity, diabetes, cancer, and immune deficiency, its effects on skin function have previously been unknown.” But now that Estée Lauder has shed some light on the subject, we all have even more good reasons to catch some much-needed zzzs.