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Often when we're sick

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typically what we want to do
is just curl up in bed

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and go to sleep.

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And in part what we're trying to do

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is sleep ourselves well

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because there's a very
intimate association

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between our sleep health
and our immune health.

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[Sleeping with Science]

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We know that individuals reporting
less than seven hours of sleep a night

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are almost three times more likely
to become infected by the rhinovirus,

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otherwise known as the common cold.

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We also know that women
sleeping five hours or less a night,

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are almost 70 percent more likely
to develop pneumonia.

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Well we've also discovered
that sleep can play a role

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in your successful immunization.

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So in one study,
they took a group of individuals

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and they limited them
to four hours of sleep a night

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for six nights.

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And in the other group,

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they gave them a full night of sleep

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each and every one of those nights.

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And then during that time period,
they gave them a flu shot

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and they measured
the response to that flu shot.

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What they discovered
is that in those individuals

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who were sleeping just four hours a night,

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they went on to produce
less than 50 percent

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of the normal antibody response.

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So in other words,
if you're not getting sufficient sleep

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in the week or the days
before you get your flu shot,

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it may render that vaccination
far less effective as a consequence.

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What this tells us,

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and now what we're starting to learn,

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is that it's during sleep at night,

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including deep non-REM sleep,

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when we actually restock the weaponry

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within our immune arsenal.

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We actually stimulate the production

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of numerous different immune factors.

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And furthermore,

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the body actually increases
its sensitivity to those immune factors.

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So you wake up the next day

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as a more robust immune individual.

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So when it comes to your immune system,

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you should perhaps think of sleep

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as one of the best
health insurance policies

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that you could ever wish for.