According to a recent study, people who sleep less than six hours per night or more than nine hours per night have a higher risk of becoming ill.
Sleep also supports immune function.
The study emphasized how getting insufficient shut-eye can raise one’s vulnerability to infections like the flu and the common cold.
The most recent study, which was written up in the journal Frontiers in Psychiatry, revealed a strong connection between sleep and infection, emphasizing the relationship between persistent sleep problems, as reported by the individual, and higher rates of infection and antibiotic use.
A cross-sectional study of 1,848 unselected patients in the waiting rooms of general practitioners in Norway was conducted to determine whether self-reported measures of chronic insomnia disorder, chronic sleep issues, sleep length, and circadian preference were linked to the risk of infections and antibiotic use.
The study’s findings showed that patients who slept less than six hours or more than nine hours had a 27 percent and a 44 percent higher risk of infection, respectively.
The study also found that people who had chronic insomnia or slept for fewer than six hours each night were more likely to need antibiotics to treat their infection.
Dr. Randall Wright, a neurologist at Houston Methodist and the medical director for Brain Wellness at Woodlands Hospital, told Healthline that the study is proof that everyone should place a high priority on getting enough sleep.
Sleep is a chance to restore and save the body, he continued. Many of the chemicals that our body requires can be replenished. Now is the ideal time for our immune system to strengthen.
Dr. Abhinav Singh, another medical director at Indiana Sleep Center, claimed that getting too little sleep can prevent white blood cells from getting to affected areas of the body.
White blood cells are an essential component of our immune system and aid in the body’s defense against infections brought on by viruses and bacteria, he told Healthline.
Singh also noted that a lack of sleep can increase the body’s production of the stress hormones prostaglandin and adrenaline. This is critical because they “reduce integrin levels, a molecule that aids T-cells (part of white blood cells) in attaching to virus-infected cells and killing them.”
