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Washington: A good
night's sleep is vital not only for sound health but also for
vaccines to work effectively, says a new study.
"With the emergence of our 24-hour lifestyle, longer working
hours, and the rise in the use of technology, chronic sleep
deprivation has become a way of life for many Americans," said Aric Prather, clinical health psychologist at the University of
California - San Francisco, who led the study, while at the
Pittsburgh University.
"These findings should help raise awareness in the public health
community about the clear connection between sleep and health,"
Prather was quoted as saying in the journal SLEEP.
To explore whether sleep duration, sleep efficiency, and sleep
quality - assessed at home and not in a controlled sleep lab --
would impact immunity to infection, researchers investigated the
antibody response to hepatitis B vaccinations on adults in good
health. Antibodies are produced by the immune system to identify
and neutralize foreign objects such as viruses and pathogens.
The study involved 125 people (70 women, 55 men) aged between 40
and 60 years. All were non-smokers in relatively good health, and
all lived in Pennsylvania - the study was conducted at the
University of Pittsburgh, according to its statement.
Each participant was administered the standard three-dose
hepatitis B vaccine; the first and second dose were administered a
month apart, followed by a booster dose at six months. Antibody
levels were measured prior to the second and third vaccine
injection and six months after the final vaccination to determine
whether participants had mounted a "clinically protective
response."
All the participants completed sleep diaries detailing their
bedtime, wake time and sleep quality, while 88 subjects also wore
electronic sleep monitors known as actigraphs.
The researchers found that people who slept fewer than six hours
on average per night were far less likely to mount antibody
responses to the vaccine and thus were far more likely (11.5
times) to be unprotected by the vaccine than people, who slept
more than seven hours on average.
Sleep quality did not affect response to vaccinations. Of the 125
participants, 18 did not receive adequate protection from the
vaccine.
"Sleeping fewer than six hours conferred a significant risk of
being unprotected as compared with sleeping more than seven hours
per night," the scientists wrote.
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