Sound sleep is important for well-being of immune
system
If lack of sound sleep is making you sick then may be
your immune system is
getting affected, warns a study. The findings, published in the journal Sleep,
showed that chronic short sleep shuts down programs involved in immune response
of circulating white blood cells. Researchers from University Of Washington
Health Sciences in the U.S. found that participants with shorter sleep duration
had a depressed immune system. ‘What we show is that the immune system
functions best when it gets enough sleep. Seven or more hours of sleep is
recommended for optimal health,’ said lead author Dr. Nathaniel Watson from
Harborview Medical Center in the U.S. They took blood samples from 11 pairs of
identical twins with different sleep patterns. A unique feature of this study
was to employ identical twins in order to control for the large genetic
determinant to humans’ sleep duration. The researchers explained that genetics
account for 31 to 55 percent of sleep duration and behaviour and environment
account for the remainder.
The researchers, citing data from the Centers for
Disease Control, said that over the past century people in the United States
are sleeping an estimated 1.5 to two hours less, and about one-third of the
working population sleeps less than six hours per night. ‘A lot of existing
data shows that curtailing sleep – for a limited time in the laboratory setting
– can increase inflammatory markers and activate immune cells,’ said another
researcher Dr. Sina Gharib. ‘The results are consistent with studies that show
when sleep deprived people are given a vaccine, there is a lower antibody
response and if you expose sleep deprived people to a rhinovirus they are more
likely to get the virus,’ Watson stated. This study provides further evidence
of sleep to overall health and well-being particularly to immune health.
02.02.2017
If you light a lamp for someone
else, it will also brighten your path
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