According to Science News for Students, data show that getting enough Z’s might also get your cuts to heal more promptly. In fact, sleep was more important than good nutrition in speeding wound healing.

This wasn’t what scientists had expected to see.

They had hoped to show that giving people a nutritional boost would make their skin wounds heal faster — even in people who were sleep-deprived. That would have been useful for soldiers in combat, or for doctors working long shifts in a hospital. The scientists thought it should work because good nutrition keeps the body’s immune system strong. That immune system helps repair injuries and guards against infection.

Tracey Smith is a nutrition scientist at the U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, in Natick, Mass. She and her team studied three groups of healthy people who came to their laboratory to take part in tests. They gave each recruit small skin wounds. Applying gentle suction on their forearms, they created blisters. Then they removed the tops of these blisters. (The procedure doesn’t hurt, although it can be itchy, Smith says.)