A new study bolsters evidence that getting enough quality sleep at night can act as a preventative measure by strengthening immune system activity to stop disease from occurring or to knock out potential infections that are present. Our bodies operate best when we act in agreement with the natural circadian rhythms triggered by daylight / darkness cycles.
As more and more is learned about the purposes of sleep, we see that this daily period of rest is critical for rebuilding and restoring virtually all systems of the body. It is also a time when many waste products are purged from the body, a necessary function in order for us to stay healthy. There's no way around it. Choosing to incorporate regular sleep into your lifestyle is not optional if you want to pursue maximum wellness.
Immune System Works Better at Night
Monday, December 15, 2008; 12:00 AM
MONDAY, Dec. 15 (HealthDay News) -- A good night's sleep really does a sick body good, new research says.
Stanford University research with fruit flies reveals that the immune system fights invading bacteria the hardest at night and the least during the day. The findings were to be presented Sunday at the American Society for Cell Biology annual meeting, in San Francisco.
"These results suggest that immunity is stronger at night, consistent with the hypothesis that circadian proteins upregulate restorative functions such as specific immune responses during sleep, when animals are not engaged in metabolically costly activities," Stanford researcher Mimi Shirasu-Hiza said in a news release issued by the conference organizers.
Circadian rhythm paces the human body as well as the fruit fly, running internal clock's time for eating and rest every day.
The researchers noted that previous experiments with flies found that bacterial infection threw off the insects' circadian rhythm, and not having this internal clock working properly made them highly susceptible to infection.
In this experiment, the researchers infected the flies with two different bacteria at different times of day or night. Those infected at night were more likely to survive than those infected during the day. The researchers also detected low "phagocytic" activity -- the body's innate immune response -- in flies with a corrupt circadian clock.
SOURCE: American Society for Cell Biology, news release, Dec. 14, 2008
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/15/AR2008121500907_pf.html
More information
The National Sleep foundation has more about How Sleep Works: 101 Ways to Get a Great Night's Sleep
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