The past several decades have seen massive progress in sleep science, even revealing how vital sleep is for all the systems in the body. More research has shown the relationship between sleep and one’s overall health, so it’s evident for many people now that sleep and your immune system are connected.
The immune system, as you know, plays a significant role in your overall health. It needs to be strong enough to heal any wounds, fight infection, and protect you from life-threatening conditions. It is one of the reasons you always look for ways to boost your immune system. Many, however, overlook the importance of sleep in maintaining a balanced immune function. Sleep deprivation can make you seek, so you want to get sufficient hours of slumber each night.
In this post, we are going to dive deeper into how sleep impacts immunity so you’ll know to make any changes in your sleep pattern if necessary:
How the Immune System Works
The immune system is a huge network in the body that offers defenses against certain illnesses. These defenses are categorized into two: adaptive immunity and innate immunity. Adaptive or acquired immunity includes defenses that the body develops as time passes and are targeted to specific threats to one’s health. On the other hand, Innate immunity is the broader type of protection that comes with multiple layers of defense.
Various components add to the complexity of your immune system. One of them is your white blood cells which identify and attack foreign pathogens in the body. When your white blood cells detect foreign pathogens, they release cytokines and prepare to attack. Histamines also play a role as they are involved in immune reactions, which often manifest as redness or swelling.
How Sleep Impacts the Immune System
Sleep delivers support to one’s immune system. When you get enough hours of high-quality slumber at night, it enables your body to build a balanced immune defense that has strong adaptive and innate immunity and makes you less likely to suffer from severe allergic reactions.
On the other hand, serious sleeping problems like sleep apnea, insomnia, and circadian rhythm disruption can affect the immune system’s healthy functioning.
How the Immune System Affect Sleep
Just as sleep impacts the immune system, the latter can affect sleep, too. For instance, infections trigger responses from the immune system, like lack of energy. This is one of the reasons sick people tend to sleep more. Even the nature of sleep varies during infection, changing how much time is spent in specific sleep stages. Particularly, the immune response results in a longer time in 3 non-rapid eye movement sleep or deep sleep. Deep sleep is associated with the slowing of bodily processes that allow the immune system to use the stored energy to fight infection in the body.
Conclusion
Considering the importance of sleep for your immune system’s function, you should start focusing on habits and routines that will allow you to get sufficient hours of sleep that is high-quality and uninterrupted. If you have chronic sleeping problems, you should consider speaking with your doctor, who can help identify the cause and determine the best course of action for you. You should also find the best multivitamins that could not only help you sleep better but boost your immune system, too.
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