How sleep can improve your immunity

- Often when we're sick

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

and go to sleep and in part
what we're trying to do

is sleep ourselves well

because there's a very
intimate association

between our sleep health
and our immune health.

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We know that individuals reporting

less than seven hours of sleep a night

are almost three times more
likely to become infected

by the rhinovirus. Otherwise
known as the common cold.

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

are almost 70% more likely
to develop pneumonia.

What we've also discovered that sleep

can play a role in your
successful immunization.

So in one study they took
a group of individuals

and they limited them to
four hours of sleep a night

for six nights. And in the other group,

they gave them a full night of sleep

each and every one of those nights.

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

and they measured the
response to that flu shot.

What they discovered is
that in those individuals

who were sleeping just four hours a night,

they went on to produce less than 50%

of the normal antibody response.

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

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

it may render that
vaccination far less effective

as a consequence, what this tells us

and now what we're starting to learn

is that it's during sleep at night,

including deep non-REM sleep.

When we actually restock the weaponry

within our immune arsenal,

we actually stimulate the production

of numerous different immune
factors. And furthermore,

the body actually
increases its sensitivity

to those immune factors.

So you wake up the next day

as a more robust immune individual.

So when it comes to your immune system,

you should perhaps think of sleep

as one of the best
health insurance policies

that you could ever wish for.

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