If you’re always feeling sick, it may be time to take a look at your sleep habits. Specifically, it’s time to be honest with yourself: are you getting enough sleep?
Sleep deprivation can have many consequences, including a decline in your immune system, which leaves you more susceptible to getting sick. If a stuffy nose or sneezing has become your constant companion, it may be because you’re not sleeping enough.
Understanding the Immune System
The immune system is a collection of fighters that each serve a role in keeping you healthy. They can be divided into two types: innate immunity and adaptive immunity. Innate immunity refers to your body’s broad sense of protection, while adaptive immunity is developed over time and aimed toward specific threats.
There are many workers in the immune system, with one of the main ones being white blood cells, which may also be referred to as leukocytes. It’s their job to find, attack, and remove foreign pathogens. When a pathogen is discovered by a white blood cell, another player is released: cytokines. These proteins shoot around the body to gather white blood cells and tell them where they are needed so that they can come attack as well.
When it comes to the proper functioning of the immune system, these immune system players must be balanced so that they can do their job well; if they’re lacking, pathogens can linger in the body, creating an infection.
How Sleep Deprivation Affects Your Immune System
If you notice that you get sick after nights of poor sleep, it’s no coincidence. In fact, your sleep and your immune system are very closely connected.
When you’re sleeping, your body releases cytokines, the proteins that rally up and direct white blood cells. Some of them have an extra purpose, though: to help you sleep. As a result, each night, your body’s production of cytokines increases, not just when you’re sick. It’s even been revealed that the types of cytokines that are released each night are important for strengthening adaptive immunity so that, if an infection comes, your body is ready for it.
However, if you’re sleep-deprived, your body may decrease the production of these types of cytokines, which keeps your body from having a proper immune response because there are not enough cytokines to direct white blood cells to where they are needed.
Other elements of your immune system are impacted by sleep deprivation, as well. For instance, natural killer cells, which fight infection, are less active when you don’t sleep enough, which affects how well your body is able to get rid of foreign contagions.
It doesn’t take many nights of sleep deprivation to see these effects, either; studies have shown that just two nights of sleep deprivation can cause a lower white blood cell count.
Research has also shown that sleep is important for helping your immune system remember how to recognize and respond to dangerous antigens, just like how sleep enables you to remember what you have learned during the day. Without this memory, your immune system may not be able to attack and remove the antigens as efficiently.
Once you’re sick, though, sleep is even more important. Your body requires more cytokines than normal to help fight off the infection, which is why rest is such an important part of feeling better; the more you sleep, the more cytokines your body is able to make. If you don’t sleep enough while you’re sick—like if you decide to push through rather than rest—you risk requiring a longer amount of time to get better and spending more days sick.
The Effect of Sleep Disorders
Sleep disorders are nighttime disruptors that may make it hard for you to fall asleep, stay asleep, or have good quality sleep. As a result, sleep disorders may also impede your immune system.
Some of the most common sleep disorders include:
- Insomnia
- Sleep apnea
- Restless legs syndrome
- Narcolepsy
Insomnia is the sleep disorder that is most easily managed by at-home habit changes, including focusing on improving your sleep hygiene. However, with all sleep disorders, you may need to get help from a doctor. For instance, sleep apnea is often treated with CPAP therapy, which is only possible after you receive a sleep apnea diagnosis and discuss treatment options with a doctor.
By treating your sleep disorder, you open up the door for better sleep, which then aids your immune system and helps you stay healthy.
Sleeping To Stay Healthy
It’s recommended that adults aim for 7-9 hours of sleep each night, which is important not only for restoring our energy levels and boosting our mood but also for bolstering our immune system so that we’re prepared to fight any illness we’re exposed to.
There are some theories on why these important immune tasks happen while you’re sleeping, such as the decline in breathing and muscle activity that occurs in sleep allowing for more energy to be directed to the immune system, or the ability of melatonin to counteract the stress that can arise from inflammation. There’s also speculation that the inflammation seen during these immune tasks could harm mental and physical performance during the day, which is why the body saves these tasks for when we’re asleep.
While the reason behind these tasks taking place during sleep remains unknown, it’s nevertheless important to get enough sleep so that your immune system can flourish.
In order to improve your sleep, consider these habits:
- Improve your sleep hygiene. Set yourself up for a good night’s sleep by improving your habits and routines related to sleep. This can include following a regular schedule, keeping your bedroom dark, cool, and quiet, and choosing a comfortable mattress.
- Treat sleep disorders. If you have a sleep disorder, follow the treatment plan recommended by your doctor in order to reach your sleep goals.
- Relax. Relaxing not only helps you sleep, but certain techniques, such as yoga and tai chi, can also enhance immune function.
- Avoid caffeine. Not only can caffeine keep you up, but if you’re sick with nausea or diarrhea, drinking caffeine can lead to dehydration. Instead, increase your fluid levels with other beverages.
When you focus on improving your sleep, you help your body protect itself from infection so that you can spend fewer days sick.
