According to a new meta-analysis of the relationship between sleep duration and the body’s response to vaccination, how well a vaccine protects you may depend on how much sleep you get in the days before and after vaccination.
According to the study, sleeping less than six hours each night at the time of vaccination was associated with a significant decrease in antibody response. Conclusions of a multi-institutional study published in Current Biology. Adults are generally recommended to get seven to nine hours of sleep per night.
A meta-analysis included data on the association between sleep duration and antibody response to influenza and hepatitis vaccines. Although comparable data on COVID-19 vaccinations were not available, the researchers said their study highlighted the need to identify simple behavioral interventions, such as getting enough sleep, that could improve response to COVID-19 vaccinations during the ongoing pandemic.
The weakened antibody response in sleep-deprived subjects was so profound that it was similar to the drop in COVID-19 antibodies two months after vaccination with the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines.
“We have previously found that cognitive behavioral therapy, like mindfulness, significantly improves insomnia and also normalizes various aspects of immunity, although it is not yet known whether treating insomnia can enhance responses to vaccination,” said Michael Irwin, MD, co. -author and director of the Cousins ​​Center for Psychoneuroimmunology at the Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA.
The researchers also examined the data by gender, as women typically have a stronger response to vaccination than men. There was a strong association between sleep duration and antibody response in men, but they said more data were needed for women because the studies did not control for changes in sex hormone levels, which are known to affect immune function.
Larger studies are also needed to determine when people should get enough sleep to promote an optimal response to the vaccine at the time of vaccination, the researchers said.
