Boost your immunity with good sleep habits.
According to the National Sleep Foundation and Dr. Matthew Walker’s prominent book, “Why We Sleep”, sleeping less than six or seven hours a night destroys your body's immune system. The good news? You can boost your body's ability to fight off infections, disease, and the common cold by not only getting more sleep, but improving the quality of the sleep you’re already getting. Here’s how sleep improves your immune system.
sleep Improves Your Immune System.
The less sleep you get, the greater the chance you have at catching a cold.
In 2002, a study on how sleep impacts your exposure to catching the common cold was studied at UCLA by Dr. Prather. The results were remarkable. A week before participants were exposed to the common cold (a dose of it was shot up their nose) participants were divided into groups that slept less than five hours, five to six hours, six to seven hours, and seven or more hours.
Fifty percent of participants that slept for five to six hours developed a cold, compared to only eighteen percent of those that slept seven or more hours.
More sleep means more natural killer cells and less cancer.
Cancer and Alzheimers are two of the most feared diseases in the developed world.
Getting one night of four hours of sleep decreases the number of natural killer cells (anti-cancer fighters) in your body by seventy percent. Yes, you read that correctly. Seventy percent.
“Sleeping less than 6-7 hours every night doubles your risk of cancer.”
When you don’t get enough sleep (or you’re overstressed) your body’s inflammation levels increase. Cancer cells then use what’s called “inflammatory factors” to their advantage, by encouraging more blood flow, DNA mutation, and/or the spreading of cancer to other areas of the body.
More sleep means you’re less likely to develop Alzheimer’s.
When you sleep, your brain clears a sticky-substance called beta-amyloid through its glymphatic system — think sewage system for your brain. If you don’t get enough sleep, your body can’t clear what’s built up. By getting more sleep (and higher quality) you can delay the onset of Alzheimers by five to ten years.
More sleep means you’re less likely to die of lifestyle disease.
Lifestyle diseases, diseases most prevalent in the developed world like diabetes, heart disease, and stroke are all impacted by your sleep. If you’re 45+ years and get less than six hours of sleep a night, you’re 200% more likely to have a heart attack or stroke in your lifetime compared to those getting seven to eight hours a night.
More sleep means you’re less likely to die in a car accident.
Yes. We know that dying in a car accident isn’t exactly related to boosting your immune system, but did you know driving sleepy is more dangerous than driving drunk. Why? People who fall asleep at the wheel have zero reaction time, drunk drivers typically have at least some reaction time.
Every hour, one person dies in the USA of a sleep-related driving incident.
How do you know if you’re too sleepy to drive? If you’ve gotten less than five hours of sleep you are 3x more likely to be involved in a traffic accident and if you got four hours or less that number jumps to 11.5x more likely.
More sleep improves your immune system, but the quality of your sleep also matters. Learn how to get more quality sleep.
Check out more mindful living articles.
Works Cited:
Why we sleep: unlocking the power of sleep and dreams, Simon & Schuster. 2018
"Boost Your Health with Better Sleep - National Sleep Foundation", 2020