Can improving your sleep protect against Covid19?
What if I told you that your sleep can protect you from viruses, infection and illness? There is a scientific reason why you are more susceptible to becoming unwell when you are sleep deprived. In fact, the neuroscientist Matthew Walker (Author of Why we Sleep), suggests that even if we reduce our sleep for single night, our immune system is weaker.
If I look back to my winters of sleep deprivation, these were always the times when I was the most run down and unwell. For example, the first winter of motherhood when our former sleep thief was up every hour at night, I caught a virus which left me with a chronic cough for 8 weeks.
And last winter, when I was not taking my own advice and not placing high value on my own sleep and self care, I ended up with serious Pneumonia (or maybe Covid19 who knows?).
You may find that your sleep deprivation is easier to cope with in the summer months, when it is easier to be outdoors in the sunshine or when there are less colds, coughs, or viruses to catch. Then as soon as the colder months hit, you tend to pick up whatever the children are carrying when you are already exhausted.
How does sleep strengthen our immune system
When you sleep, your immune system releases proteins known as cytokines. When you are unwell or stressed these proteins increase in order to fight the illness, infection or a perceived threat such as stress. According to Walker, “sleep fights against sickness by deploying all manner of weaponry within your immune system’s arsenal, cladding you with protection”. This means without good quality sleep you are more likely to become unwell.
What happens to your immune system when you are sleep deprived?
It is thought that when you are sleep deprived, your immune system produces less cytokines and infection fighting antibodies. The National Sleep Foundation back this up by sharing that “without sufficient sleep, your body makes fewer cytokines, a type of protein that targets infection and inflammation”. Therefore, the higher quality sleep you have, the more supported your immune system is, which reduces the risk of infection and can improve outcomes for people fighting a virus (U Chicago Medicine)
Walker even goes as far to say “the less sleep an individual is getting in a week, the more likely they would get the flu or a common cold”.
What if I have the flu vaccine?
Interestingly, both Walker and The National Sleep Foundation found the flu vaccine is only effective if you are getting sufficient sleep, for example 7 hours more per night.
Can improving my sleep protect me against Covid19?
The National Sleep Foundation suggest that sleep deprivation weakens the immune system and makes people more vulnerable to contracting a virus. I am not a scientist, and do not know enough about Covid19 to answer this question. However, from the resources I have shared here, it appears that improving your sleep strengthens your body’s ability to fight a virus, infection and other illnesses.
Where does this leave you as a sleepless mother?
These sleep facts really do raise a lot of questions around the societal low value that is placed on mother’s sleep. There appears to be an expectation that although as a woman you have more choice than previous generations, that we are still expected to be (mostly and usually yet not always) the ones who do the “night shifts”.
From personal experience, it is often expected that mothers are to “just get on with it” when unwell, whereas in the main some fathers or secondary caregivers appear to have the justification to take time off work or lay up in bed unwell. Why is this seen as a luxury for a woman?
I would argue whether you are a stay at home mum or a working mum you need your health to be in the best place possible so that you can take care of yourself and your family. Is your sleep really less important than everyone else’s in your household?
At a time of so much uncertainty, stress and illness, I am strongly recommending you put everything into strengthening your immune system, for the sake of yours and your family’s health and wellbeing. You cannot protect yourself from illnesses this winter without improving your sleep. There is literally no better time than the present to improve, cope and manage your sleep deprivation for the sake of your health.
