Why Sleep Matters for Covid – Your Immune System

Your immune system and sleep are connected. Sleep loss impacts your immune response and, in turn, your immune system alters your sleep. If you are trying to help fight against Covid-19, getting consistent quality sleep will be one of your primary methods of helping fight this disease and ensuring optimal recovery.

Molecules called cytokines are signaling molecules in the immune system and the brain. Sleep deprivation decreases your body’s production of cytokines and inhibit your immune response to deadly illness like Covid-19, as well as other diseases like:

• Flu
• Cold
• Chronic inflammation

Specifically, lack of sleep prevents your immune system from building up its forces, meaning that your immune system will be overloaded by illness and will likely take longer to recover.

During illness, increased levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines correspond with increased fatigue, which is why you feel tired when you are sick. It’s your body’s way of telling you to sleep more and recover quicker from your illness.

The key point here – along with a disclaimer – is that sleep may help you boost your immune system and protect you from, or mitigate, Covid-19 impacts on your health. However, Covid-19 is not well understood and underlying conditions and other factors may also render good-sleep a non-factor. That being said, getting plenty of sleep this winter and/or if you have signs of Covid probably won’t hurt!

How Much Sleep Should You Get

Getting enough sleep is extremely important for preventing illness. This requires, however, knowing how much sleep you should be getting.

The amount of sleep you need varies based on age. Below are minimum, maximum, and recommended number of hours of sleep, which will help prevent sickness:

It important to ensure that you and your children are getting at least the recommend amount of sleep, but ideally much more.

Common Causes of Sleep Deprivation

Knowing common causes of sleep deprivation is an important way to avoid sleep deprivation. Sleep disorders are a common cause of chronic sleep deprivation, including:

• Sleep apnea
• Insomnia
• Restless leg syndrome
• Circadian rhythm disorders
• Parasomnias

The primary symptom of sleep disorder is simply sleep deprivation. Beyond this each sleep disorder has its own set of unique symptoms. Sleep disorders are not only bad for your health in general, but the consequential sleep deprivation also makes you much more likely to get sick, and take longer to recover.

Sleep disorders are especially insidious in terms of illnesses like Covid-19, as sleep deprivation leaves you with a weak or compromised immune system, and it is imperative that you get a lot of sleep to be able to fight such deadly disease like Covid.

If you live in Alaska and are dealing with chronic sleep deprivation or chronic sickness that may be sleep related, please take with free online sleep test and get started on your road to recover.