Sleep and Immunity

Sleep and Immunity
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Michael Greger
9/28/2022
Updated:
3/22/2023
Is the link between immune function and a good night’s rest a myth?

To really boost our immune systems, maybe we just need to get enough sleep. Or is that a total myth? Fact or fiction: if you don’t get enough sleep, it can impair your immune system. Believe it or not, we didn’t know for certain either way, until 2009.

Researchers dripped virus into people’s nostrils—the common cold virus. Now, you’d think if someone squirted virus right up your nose, you’d definitely get sick. But no. It really depends on your immune system. Someone with a cold can sneeze dead in your face—but if you have a good enough immune system, you won’t get sick.

So in the study, did it depend on how much sleep they’d been getting? Fact, or fiction?

Fact. Those getting enough sleep were three to five times more likely to beat the virus.

Republished from NutritionFacts.org
Michael Greger, MD, FACLM, is a physician, New York Times bestselling author, and internationally recognized professional speaker on a number of important public health issues. He has lectured at the Conference on World Affairs, the National Institutes of Health, and the International Bird Flu Summit, testified before Congress, appeared on “The Dr. Oz Show” and “The Colbert Report,” and was invited as an expert witness in defense of Oprah Winfrey at the infamous “meat defamation” trial. This article was originally published on NutritionFacts.org
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