Researchers gave 125 people between the ages of 40 and 60 a standard three-dose hepatitis B vaccine. Participants’ levels of antibodies—proteins in the body that fight disease, which vaccines make the body produce more of—were measured before the second and third shots, as well as six months after the final vaccine. The amount of nightly sleep study participants got was also tracked. More From Prevention.com: What Your Sleep Position Says About You And the results were more than a little alarming. People who slept an average of six hours or less per night were less likely to have an antibody response—meaning they were nearly 12 times more likely to be unprotected by the vaccination compared to those who slept more than seven hours. “Evidence suggests that if you deprive individuals from sleeping for a full eight hours (or drastically reduce their regular sleep duration), it has an effect on their antibody response to vaccination,” says lead author Aric Prather, PhD, a clinical health psychologist at UCSF and UC Berkeley. “This study provides clear evidence that there is a link between the amount of sleep and an immune process relevant to infectious disease risk,” he says. Exactly how a lack of sleep makes vaccines less effective is still up for debate, but Dr. Prather believes that sleep deprivation leads to an unhealthy fluctuation in the number specific cells needed for generating antibody production. And antibody production, says Dr. Prather, is the key to vaccine response. (Which vaccines do you need? Find out with Health Tests Every Woman Needs.) Bottom line: Getting a full night’s rest is always important, but even more so if you’ve just gotten a vaccine or are in the process of getting a series of them. Oh, and napping to make up for less than stellar nightly shuteye won’t cut it, most likely due to the difference in circadian rhythms, says Dr. Prather. “Sleep needs to take larger priority when we think about our health,” he says.
