Can’t Dream This Up: Can poor sleep affect your vaccine’s effectiveness?

Are you a poor sleeper? Did you contract COVID-19 even after taking the vaccination? A new study suggests that a person’s sleep habits could influence the effectiveness of a vaccination — be it for coronavirus or even the flu vaccine.

Sleep study

A multi-institution study has found that sleeping less than six hours the night before you get the shot may limit your body’s response to the vaccine, reducing protection against the virus or bacteria. The findings, published in Current Biology, included data on the association between sleep duration and antibody responses for the influenza and hepatitis vaccines. While data was not provided on COVID-19 vaccines, researchers said their study could be applied to coronavirus shots.

The study found that the antibody response in those with poor sleep was similar to the decline in COVID-19 antibodies two months after taking either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna shots.

Senior author Eve Van Cauter, professor emeritus at the University of Chicago’s Department of Medicine, in a statement to CNN said: “Good sleep not only amplifies but may also extend the duration of protection of the vaccine.”

However, the study — which compared the antibody responses of individuals who slept for seven to nine hours per night and those who slept for less than six hours per night — threw up a very odd detail. The decline in vaccine effectiveness owing to poor sleep was scientifically relevant in men.

The research’s co-author Dr Michael Irwin, distinguished professor of psychiatry and biobehavioural sciences at the UCLA Geffen School of Medicine, was quoted as saying, “Research that used objective measures of sleep deprivation, such as that of a sleep lab, found a decrease in the ability to respond to the vaccine that was particularly and statistically significant in males, but not females.”

Why though? The researchers had a possible answer for this too. Dr Phyllis Zee, neurology professor and director of the Center for Circadian and Sleep Medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, explained that there are known sex differences in the immune response to foreign antigens, like viruses, and also self-antigens, like in autoimmune disorders. “In general, women have stronger immune response, including (to the) flu vaccine,” she said.

Regardless of these differences between men and women, the study concluded that a person who is jet-lagged or sleep-deprived or has a poor sleep cycle, then they should delay their vaccination.

As Dr Michael Irwin said, “If I was working with patients to give them a vaccination, I would inquire whether they’re having problems with sleep and whether they were sleep deprived the night before. If they are, I would ask them to come back when they are fully rested.”

Previous studies have found that adults with sleep apnea appeared to be at higher risk for severe COVID-19 and death from the virus. That study published by the JAMA Network Open found those with the sleep disorder were 31 per cent more likely to be hospitalised after being infected with the virus and 31 per cent more likely to die from it.

Sleep and our immunity

Adequate sleep is vital for good health and past research has shown that a good night’s rest improves immune cells known as T-cells.

Researchers have also found that during nightly sleep, certain components of the immune system speed up. For example, there is an increased production of cytokines associated with inflammation. This activity appears to be driven both by sleep and by circadian rhythm, which is the body’s 24-hour internal clock.

When someone is ill or injured, this inflammatory response may help with recovery, fortifying innate and adaptive immunity as the body works to repair wounds or fight off an infection. Research has also shown that sleep strengthens immune memory. The interaction of immune system components during sleep reinforces the immune system’s ability to remember how to recognise and react to dangerous antigens.

Besides affecting immunity, lack of good sleep can increase the risk of obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases.

“Bad sleep can result in long-term problems with mood, memory, and blood sugar, among other things,” Suzanne Stevens, MD, a sleep neurologist at the University of Kansas Health System, told Healthline. “Short-term consequences of bad sleep may include sleepiness, poor judgement, car accidents, moodiness, memory problems, workplace mistakes, and more. Chronic poor sleep affects not only the ability to function well the next day, but the sleep deficit builds up the longer sleep isn’t good.”

Also read: Why is sleep important for fitness?

Good sleep is a nightmare

Despite the many health benefits drawn from good sleep, people across the world suffer from sleep deprivation.

In the US in 2022, almost 30 per cent of adults, who participated in a study, said that they had trouble falling or staying asleep and about 27 per cent were very sleepy during the day. The analysis also found over 30 per cent of adults reported an hour of sleep debt — when you sleep less than your body needs — while nearly one in 10 adults had a sleep debt of two hours or more.

A Philips Global Sleep Survey of 2019 had found that 62 per cent of adults around the world said they don’t sleep as well as they’d like and 67 per cent of adults reported sleep disturbances at least once every night.

Also read: Why more people are waking up to sleep tourism in 2023

Eric Olson, MD, a pulmonologist and sleep medicine specialist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, told Healthline that people had to “reflect on the amount of sleep they’re getting because a lot of the problems are voluntarily induced, and they just need to decide to prioritise an adequate night’s sleep”.

He added, “Good sleep must be a priority because there’s so much going on in our worlds. That unless you consciously decide you’re going to make enough time for sleep, it’s just not going to happen.”

With inputs from agencies

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