There’s a school of thought that says you should clean your face and leave it bare of treatments while you sleep. I’m sure this works for some people at some stage in life, but not for those of us concerned with antiaging. Bedtime is prime time to get things done on your skin. A good skin serum, with regular use, can aid the natural processes that occur while you sleep. With serums, you’ll see results faster.

Sleep, itself, is vital for healthy skin — they call it beauty rest for a reason. During sleep, damaged skin cells are repaired, new skin cells are produced, and collagen and elastin (proteins that give skin a wrinkle-free, youthful appearance) are strengthened. Your body depends on this time to mend itself which it is why I say it’s prime time to help your skin get things done.

Serums vs. Moisturizers

While serums do moisturize, they generally affect the deeper layers of skin and target a specific problem. A serum’s job is to rejuvenate, repair and restore the skin. With that said, there is a lot of variety in serums because they are targeted toward specific skin problems — acne serums, wrinkle serums, blemish serums, etc.

On the other hand, moisturizers generally don’t penetrate the skin as far as a serum will. While serums target problems, moisturizers are meant to deposit moisture and hydrate your skin–nothing more. A moisturizer puts moisture back into the dehydrated surface of the skin. A properly formulated moisturizer is hydrolyzed — the molecules are small enough to penetrate the surface of your skin. A properly formulated moisturizer will not leave your skin feeling too oily, too tight, or too dry at the end of the day.

You may be thinking you don’t need a moisturizer and a serum, and that may be true for some skin types; however, with aging skin the primary problem is dryness so a moisturizer during the day and serum at night is not excessive.