Sleep Is Critical to Healthy Immunity.
People exposed to a respiratory virus are three times more likely to get sick if they get less than seven hours of sleep at night, a recent study finds. Trouble is most Americans only sleep about six and a half hours—one hour less a night than we slept in the ’50s.
News from scientists at the University of Chicago and at NIH in Washington DC is even more sobering. We actually need nine and a half hours of sleep at night for at least seven months out of the year—preferably between October and June—for healthy immunity.
“Maintaining the immune system may be the reason sleep has evolved,” explains Brian Preston, PhD, a researcher at Germany’s Max Planck Institute. Mammals that sleep the longest have six times the immune cells as those that sleep less.
Besides fighting the flu, nature’s “missing link”—sleep—helps your immune system ward off diabetes, heart disease, cancer, obesity, and severe depression. Lack of sleep even disturbs normal brain activity and vision, causing over 100,000 car accidents a year.
Now that we’re plugged in 24/7 with our iPhones and iPods, who wants to sleep when you can check your emails, chat with friends, and text the world—anytime of night? Talk about unremitting stress!
When we turn our clocks back next week to end daylight savings, we also disturb the body’s internal clock. This throws off our natural sleep-wake cycle and impacts hormones like cortisol and melatonin that influence this critical “missing link.”
Dr. Ann Louise’s Take:
The most dramatic event humans have experienced happened less than 80 years ago. Electricity and bright lights at night have changed us forever.
When it’s dark, the body naturally produces the hormone melatonin to ready your system for sleep and help you snooze through the night. Five times stronger than vitamin C, melatonin is a potent antioxidant that controls immunity.
What to Do?
Exercise outdoors in the sun to boost melatonin. Start dimming lights when the sun goes down to ready your body for sleep. I even wear special amber glasses to knock out the melatonin-blocking rays from blue light.
When I get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, I use special nightlights that block blue rays. Don’t flick on those strong overhead lights because they’ll zap your melatonin and you won’t be able to get back to sleep. Taking 3 to 15 mg of melatonin a night can also be helpful.
Balance Hormones
Other hormones also impact how well women sleep. Starting in puberty, fluctuating hormone levels make females two and a half times more likely than males to suffer insomnia.
During perimenopause and menopause hot flashes disrupt women’s sleep. (We all sleep more soundly when we’re slightly cool.) Progesterone is the hormone that helps women sleep well in the first and second trimesters of pregnancy—before heartburn, leg cramps, and frequent urination disturb sleep.
Uni Key’s ProgestaKey is an all-natural progesterone cream that balances hormone levels and reduces hot flashes and night sweats. Progesterone has also been found to slow the growth of breast cancer cells, another reason to consider this cream.
Chill Out
Unfortunately, the female hormone estrogen raises levels of the stress hormone cortisol. Women have higher levels of this stress hormone when estrogen rises during their menstrual cycle—but progesterone helps even cortisol out and improves sleep.
It’s important to relax at night for sound sleep—so turn off those scary news stories about swine flu. I also recommend Adrenal Formula to combat stress in today’s 24/7 lifestyle.
The Bottom Line
Stack those Zzz’s to stay healthy—especially in cold and flu season when your immune system needs all the help it can get. Take 400 mg of Magnesium before you go to bed. I rotate between melatonin, tryptophan—the precursor for relaxing serotonin—and magnesium.
Sources:
https://www.healthday.com/Article.asp?AID=632118
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19840243
https://discovermagazine.com/2009/apr/22-new-theory-about-why-sleep-maintain-immune-system
