Feeling Ugly? You May Want to Take a Nap

Want to improve your appearance? You could try a radical new facial treatment…Or you could just sleep off the ugly.

A study in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine found that people who get better sleep actually look better after a few weeks. The study analyzed 20 adult patients with obstructive sleep apnea — a disorder in which not being able to breathe correctly deters the sufferer from sleeping soundly — with a face-measuring program called “photogrammetry,” which captured images of their faces before and after two weeks of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy. The study also measured the faces of the participants versus faces of 22 random volunteers, rating them all for alertness, youthfulness, and attractiveness (Bet you didn't know that those could be scientifically analyzed, did you?).

Overwhelmingly, the raters of the study found that the majority of the post-treatment faces were more alert, younger, and generally more good-looking. Patients who received the treatment were also found to have decreased forehead surface volume (indicating changes in nightly fluid shift) and less redness under their eyes and in their cheeks.

But a boost in beauty isn't the only benefit from CPAP therapy. You see, sleep apnea is a disorder which actually stops people from breathing at random intervals throughout the night — thus the treatment can save lives. Unfortunately, CPAP, while incredibly successful when used correctly, is a difficult sell to many of the people who have sleep apnea. Because the therapy involves wearing a mask connected via hose to a machine that pumps pressurized air throughout the night while they sleep, which is about as comfortable as it sounds, many patients who receive the masks end up not using them.

And thus we get to the real reason for conducting and publicizing this study. It seems the team that handled the research and wrote the report hope that people with untreated obstructive sleep apnea, between 12 and 18 million U.S. adults, would be more tempted by vanity to follow through on their treatment. "This may help convince patients to use their CPAP machines on a nightly basis," lead researcher Dr. Ronald D. Chervin, of the Sleep Disorders Center at the University of Michigan, recently told Medical News Today.

So if you suffer from obstructive sleep apnea, wear your mask when you sleep! It'll improve your appearance (and save your life). And for those of us you who don't have sleep apnea, just remember the study's findings the next time you're in the midst of a late-night video-gaming marathon. Hopefully it will make you reconsider your night-owl pursuits.

[Pic via Flickr - RelaxingMusic]