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Good Night's Sleep May
Benefit Immune System
Conventional wisdom says getting enough
sleep is key to staying healthy, and now there's new scientific
evidence to back it up.
Researchers in Germany found that
among a group of volunteers vaccinated against hepatitis A infection,
those who got a good night's sleep afterward showed a stronger
immune response to the vaccine.
This indicates a well-rested person's
immune system may launch a stronger response to an invading virus
than that of a sleep-deprived individual, according to the study's
lead author.
The hepatitis A vaccine, like many
other vaccines, exposes the immune system to an inactivated form
of the virus. The point is to induce the body to produce antibodies
against the virus so that if the real thing ever invades, the
immune system is armed to fight it.
The antibody response to a vaccine
provides a model for testing a person's immune response to infection.
In the new study, Dr. Jan Born
and colleagues repeatedly measured levels of hepatitis A antibodies
in the blood of 19 men and women until 28 days after vaccination.
Half of the group got a full night's sleep after being immunized,
while the rest were kept awake that night and the following day
until evening.
Four weeks later, the well-rested
group on average had nearly twice the antibody level, or titer,
of the sleep-deprived group.
"Our results are amazing in that
they show a decrease in antibody titer after only a single night
of sleep deprivation," Born, a researcher at the University of
Luebeck, told Reuters Health.
He added, however, that the sleepless
group still had a strong enough antibody response to be effective.
The findings are published in the
September/October issue of the journal Psychosomatic Medicine.
According to Born, one hypothesis
is that hormonal changes during sleep may aid immune function.
He noted that sleep boosts the release of prolactin and growth
hormone, two hormones that lab experiments suggest enhance the
immune response.
SOURCE: Psychosomatic Medicine
Sept./Oct., 2003.
Reference
Source 89
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