Psychological stress may impair the skin’s barrier function, which keeps bacteria out and water in. In one study, for example, researchers used tape to strip a small patch of skin from 25 women who volunteered to participate in mock interviews and 11 women who volunteered for one night of sleep deprivation. Such temporary stress caused the volunteers’ skin to recover more slowly than without stress, according to the study, published in 2001 in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology. “Studies have shown that the skin of people under chronic stress — caregivers of Alzheimer’s patients or medical students during exam time — will heal more slowly,” said Dr. Ladan Mostaghimi, an assistant professor of dermatology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Dr. Mostaghimi published a study in 2005 in the Journal of Sleep Research reporting that severely sleep-deprived lab rats developed lesions on their paws and tails while rested rats did not. In humans, stress can contribute to flare-ups of alopecia areata, a form of hair loss, and skin diseases like psoriasis and atopic dermatitis, a form of eczema, Dr. Mostaghimi said.
