If the number of night creams coming onto the skin care market is any indication, the right time to pamper your skin is when you hit the sack: Last year consumers spent about $56 million on nighttime moisturizers alone. Although no scientific studies have been published comparing nighttime with daytime beauty products, there may be some advantages to treating your skin while you slumber.

Cosmetic chemists know, for example, that many anti-aging ingredients stay active longer when they’re not exposed to sunlight. Retinoids, which speed cell turnover, “can break down chemically with light exposure and become ineffective,” says Julian Omidi, MD, a dermatologist in private practice in Los Angeles. Other “anti-agers”–such as topical vitamins, including C and E–don’t hold up well in sunlight or air. They’re in both day and night skin care products, but you probably get more antioxidant bang for your buck when you apply them before you go to sleep.

Nighttime also gives you an 8-hour opportunity to hydrate skin with formulations that don’t mix well with foundation or that might give you a sheen you’d rather not show in the light of day. These superhydrators not only attract moisture to the skin but also prevent it from evaporating from the skin’s surface. There’s some evidence, too, that skin may be more receptive to active ingredients when you’re sleeping, because “they don’t have to compete with the sun, pollution, or makeup; the product just gets to do its work,” says Cristina Carlino, CEO of Philosophy, a line of skin care products.

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