Sunburn doesn’t just make you uncomfortable during the day, it makes you unable to sleep during the night and you wish you didn’t forget to wear your sunscreen because things would be a lot easier. Now you wonder, how to sleep with sunburn easily? Here’s how.
Why Does Sunburn Happen?
Sunburn happens because of the exposure to ultraviolet light excessively. Your skin produces melanin to combat the damaging ultraviolet light to your skin, which makes your skin darker, but your skin’s ability to produce melanin is limited and when the light is too much your skin gets sunburned and you start to feel the symptoms of a sunburn.
Ultraviolet light damages the skin cells and causes mutations in their DNA, this may lead to skin cancer because of the mutated DNA.
How to Protect Yourself from Sunburn?
- Use water-resistant sunscreen, this has a great impact and could save you from huge pain
- Stand in the shades if you are able to, by reducing the time you are exposed to UV you are reducing the chances of sunburn happening
- Use hats, sunglasses, and UV clothing that can provide protection from sunburns
But now sunburn has happened and you want to sleep, what should you do?
How to Sleep with a Sunburn
There two main tips that can help you sleep better with a sunburn:
- Using soothing gel
- Sleeping on bed sheets that don’t irritate your skin.
These two simple tips could help you relax and be able to sleep again even if you have a bad sunburn.
Look for 100% aloe vera soothing gel, aloe vera has great abilities to soothe irritated skin and many doctors and specialists are recommending aloe vera for sunburned skin, it will help you relax at night because the need to itch will be gone thanks to the gel.
The other tip is to sleep on bedsheets that don’t irritate your itchy skin, your skin when sunburned is so sensitive and anything could irritate it so by picking sheets that is gentle to your skin and doesn’t irritate an itch would be great for you and you will become more able to sleep peacefully and calmly.
Does Sleep Help Sunburn?
Sleep is when our bodies start repairing itself and its damaged tissues so yes sleep helps healing sunburn and by having a good night’s sleep you are accelerating towards healing your damaged skin cells that got damaged by ultraviolet sunlight.
Does a Hot Shower Help With Sunburn?
No, actually it can make things worse because a hot shower will increase the diameter of your blood vessels which increases the flow of blood to damaged areas of the skin which will make things worse and more painful.
This is why sunburns are worse after a hot shower because the amount of blood flowing towards the damaged skin area increases which increases pain from that area.
What you should do instead is to sink into a cold bath, this will help your blood vessels to shrink and less blood will flow towards the damaged skin area reducing the amount of pain you have to go through.
Does Ice Help Sunburn?
Applying ice directly to the sunburn could make things worse, what you should do instead is wrapping ice into a towel and applying that towel into the sunburn to take the heat out and cool down the burn.
The ice helps to absorb the heat out of the sunburn so it can cool down faster and quicker and you could heal better, so you should always consider ice as a solution to sunburn.
Why are Sunburns Worse After a Shower?
Maybe because you are talking about the wrong type of shower, as I discussed with you above hot showers can make sunburn worse because it increases the blood flow to the damaged cells which increases the pain that is produced from these cells.
What you should do instead is to take a cold bath, this way you are reducing the amount of blood flowing to the damaged cells which in turn reduces the pain that you will feel from your sunburn.
Do Sunburns Get Worse Before They Get Better?
Yes, sunburns get worse for a few hours or days before they start getting better, the reason for that is that UV damage continues for hours after you have left the sun. The damage to the skin cells isn’t only instantaneous but it continues actually after you have left the sun because it causes damage to the DNA of the cells itself which continues for hours afterward.
UV rays trigger free-radical chemistry that excites an electron in a fragment of melanin to very high energy. The energy goes into DNA and causes damage.
I am Karim, A passionate blogger and I am always curious when it comes to sleep health, I love to explore what sleep affects and what has an effect on sleep.