Studies have shown that sleep is closely related with immune function and performance, the more quality sleep, the faster recovery period you have, the more effective vaccines are, and the less susceptible you are to diseases,

Cancer

If you have a form of cancer and you’re not getting enough sleep, it can make it worse. In an experiment with healthy mice, they were injected with cancer and had one month to grow. 1/2 of the mice were allowed to sleep normally, and the other half, their total sleep was restricted. After a month they resected the skin and measured the size of the tumor mass, and what they found was:

• There was a 200% increase in size and speed of cancerous growth in the sleep deprived mice
• The cancer had spread to other parts of the body, other organs, brain, which increases mortality rates.

<aside> ⏩ Sleep loss accelerate cancer.

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Vaccine Effectiveness

As sleep affects immune function, it also affects vaccine effectiveness. In a study, participants were given the hepatitis A vaccine – which requires 3 injections at weeks 0, 8, and 16. One group of participants (control) slept 8 hours after each injection, while the experimental group had total sleep deprivation after each injection.

The authors compared the number of immune cells expressing the antibodies required for HepA immunity. They found:

• Sleep deprivation reduced the number of T-cells expressing the antibody, meaning the vaccine was less effective and they were more susceptible to HepA.

<aside> 💉 Sleep loss reduces vaccine effectiveness

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Preventing Sickness

It has been found that when people sleep more, the ability for the immune system to fight back is stronger. An experiment was conducted with 164 volunteers, where they were tracked on their sleep hours and then administered a virus that causes the common cold. After 5 days of quarantine, they were checked by a physician for signs for the cold. The results showed that:

It show that shorter sleep duration = increase likelihood of developing the clinical cold.

<aside> 📉 Sleeping decreases susceptibility of sickness.

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