While the importance of these factors remains unheeded when things are going smoothly, when you get sick due to lack of sleep from late nights studying for exams or burned out from work, chances are, your immune system has been compromised. This article will shed light on how the immune system is affected by sleep disturbances and high-stress levels. But first, let’s see how the immune system works.

How Does the Immune System Work?

The immune system serves as a multifaceted system present all through your body, protecting it along multiple lines of defense. There are two main categories of these defenses: innate Immunity and Adaptive Immunity.

The intrinsic level of protection found in every human being is referred to as innate immunity. Whereas adaptive immunity, also referred to as acquired immunity, is defined as the line of defense that an individual develops over time targeting certain specified threats.

Getting to Know Your Immune System

Several constituents play a part in the immune system’s intricacy, the key component being the white blood cells or leukocytes. The role of the leukocytes is to recognize, attack, and eradicate foreign bodies and pathogens from the body. There are two ways our immune system responds to the foreign particles that invade the body; the first is immediate or innate, and the second is the learned or adaptive way. This allows your body to interact with the environment without being harmed each day.

As soon as a white blood cell encounters a foreign body, it releases cytokines to stimulate other white blood cells to organize the attack. Hence, the proteinaceous cytokines serve as the immune system’s messengers to trigger the immune response. In addition to cytokines, including histamine, other chemicals also partake in the defense mechanism, giving rise to immune reactions such as swelling or redness.

Stable Immune Response

What’s an immune reaction or response? Under optimum functioning conditions, the immune system upholds a subtle balance. In case of an injury or a threat, the immune system stimulates reactions that include inflammation (swelling and redness), lethargy, fever, or pain. However, it is essential for the immune system to direct immune responses that are optimal, identifying and targeting the active pathogens while also being regulated not to keep the body under constant c-alert.

How Is the Immune System Affected by Sleep?

Sleep gives us solace at night, recharging us to meet the challenges of the next day. However, it also provides support to the immune system. A night of good quality sleep for sufficient hours as essential for an optimal immune mechanism that creates resilient, innate and adaptive immunity.

On the contrary, sleep issues that include sleep disorders such as sleep apnea, insomnia, and circadian rhythm disruption may impede the immune system’s health.

Sleep and Innate and Adaptive Immunity

While being a source of bodily rest, sleep is crucial for the strength of the immune system. As a matter of fact, having enough sleep assists both innate and adaptive immunity. According to researchers, a good night’s sleep leads to the activation of the immune system’s specific constituents. For instance, the production of cytokines is elevated during inflammation. This is mediated by the body’s circadian rhythm, which is its 24-hour internal clock that regulates the natural time of sleeping and waking up.

In case of an injury, the inflammatory response is what supports the healing process and recovery. It revitalizes innate and adaptive immunity with the body’s repair mechanism as the infection is cured.

However, it has been shown in studies that inflammation takes place even in the absence of an injury or sickness. Analyzing the cell types and cytokines that are involved in nighttime immunity denotes that it plays an important role in strengthening adaptive immunity.

The brain carries out consolidation, enhancing memory and learning. Similarly, research has found that immune memory is also strengthened by sleep. There is a specific type of interaction between the components of the immune system. At the same time you are asleep, which fortifies the immune system’s memory to recall the way to identify and respond to the antigens of pathogens.

Although the reason why it occurs during sleep is not fully known, it is considered that this involves the role of various factors. These can include the following: While an individual is asleep, the muscle activity, as well as breathing, is slow, so there is free energy available for the immune system’s activities to be performed with ease. Suppose the inflammation occurs during the waking hours. In that case, it may be detrimental for the person’s physical and mental activity at night during deep sleep, so these healing processes can adequately perform.

The sleep-enhancing hormone melatonin is released during the night’s sleep and is proficient in combating the stress caused by inflammation. Having said so, the body is adept at self-regulating by means of its circadian rhythm. With the ending of the sleeping hours, the inflammation process is downregulated. Hence, it is essential to get sufficient high-quality sleep for the facilitation of immune balance.

Can Lack Of Sleep Cause Sickness?

Lack of sleep can cause extensive damage to health. There is increasing evidence that suggests that sleep deprivation may cause interference in the immune system activity, making you more prone to illness.

Sleep insufficiency, particularly at night, has a great association with both acute and chronic illnesses. Hence, the susceptibility to chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart problems increases. It is highly believed that this occurs due to the interferences caused by lack of sleep on the immune system’s optimal functioning.

Research has shown that the possibility of infections in the short term is more in individuals who sleep less than 6 to 7 hours each night. It has also been found that sleep deprivation increases the likelihood of common cold and flu.

In addition, sleep insufficiency also causes multiple chronic health issues due to the immune system weakening. For those who get a sufficient night’s sleep, the nighttime inflammation retreats back prior to waking hours. In individuals who are sleep deprived, this natural self-regulating mechanism fails to occur. The inflammatory process continues, thus contributing to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, pain, and neurodegenerative disorders. Furthermore, as per studies, continuous inflammation leads to depression and the worsening of cancer.

Effect of Stress on The Immune System