Are you scrolling skincare tips at 3AM? It might be ageing your skin and brain faster than stress

Late-night scrolling might feel harmless, but poor sleep speeds up skin and brain ageing. One sleepless night can age your brain by two years, no serum can reverse that damage (Image: Canva)

Staying up late on your phone might feel harmless, but just one night without proper sleep can make your brain appear one to two years older, according to a University of Zurich study. Research shows that long-term sleep loss or poor sleep can speed up ageing and raise the risk of early disease and even shorter life expectancy.

A study published in the National Institute of Health (NIH) reveals that this happens because sleep affects how your body repairs itself. As per the study, when you don’t sleep well, key biological processes break down. This includes changes in metabolism, increased cell damage, and reduced ability to repair or restore tissues. Over time, this can lead to cell ageing, shorter telomeres (which protect our DNA), and a higher risk of age-related diseases.

Late-night phone scrolling can speed up ageing. Try these simple tips to protect your skin and sleep better:

• Prioritise sleep: Your skin repairs itself while you sleep, so every late night means missed regeneration time and deeper undereye shadows that no concealer or caffeine eye cream can hide.
• Reduce blue light exposure: The screen glow you're addicted to is quietly damaging your collagen, accelerating fine lines and making your selfies smoother than your actual skin.
• Lower your cortisol levels: Late-night scrolling spikes your stress hormone, which breaks down collagen, causes breakouts, and leaves your skin looking tired, puffy, and a bit emotionally unstable too.
• Practice skincare, not scroll-care: Watching skincare tutorials isn’t skincare, actually cleansing, moisturising, and sleeping are. You can’t glow up by watching others do their routines.
• Respect the natural clock: Your skin follows a circadian rhythm. Disrupting it means less repair, more damage, and a face that screams zoom fatigue by 9am.
• Restore melatonin: Melatonin helps you sleep and renew skin overnight, but blue light blocks it No melatonin is equal to poor sleep and a face that feels extra Monday.
• Hydrate properly: Staying up late means you’re likely skipping water and moisturiser while your skin gets drier than your love life during exam season.
• Reduce inflammation: Staying up too late contributes to low-grade inflammation which silently breaks down your skin barrier and accelerates visible signs of early ageing.
• Prevent digital exhaustion: Digital fatigue shows up first on your face, in puffy eyes, dull texture, and fine lines that don’t care how expensive your night serum is.