Cold and flu season is upon us, and the news last week which showed the impact of sleep on immunity was downright fascinating.
Pop quiz: does it matter whether you get an infection during the night versus during the day?
It appears so. Stanford researchers showed just how much stronger our immune system is at night by infecting flies with two strains of bacteria—but some of those flies were infected during the day. Those that got sick during the night were more likely to survive than those getting sick during the day.
Okay, so we’re not fruit flies. But researchers routinely use flies to help make observations and conclusions that can be related to humans. I have no doubt that if we were to test this theory on humans, we’d find similar results. It’s long been known that quality sleep boosts immunity (ahem, I wrote about this in my last post). I love another study emerging to confirm this fact. When most of our bodily functions are at rest, our immune systems can amplify.
