Sleep is a vital sign of your health, just like you check battery levels in your devices- sleep is your charger- which charges your body’s battery to function optimally. If you want to improve your health and immunity, good sleep is essential.
How is sleep important in the Covid 19 pandemic?
Sleep improves your stress levels and lowers the adrenal and stress hormones in your body and thus improves your immunity. One of the detrimental effects of Covid 19 is the result of the immune system going into overdrive called “a cytokine storm”. The focus then turns to controlling one’s immune system as well as the infection.
Cytokines can rise also due to poor sleep. So, to reduce your cytokines and decrease inflammation in your body, good quality and quantity of sleep is essential. The amount of sleep your body needs varies with your age and your overall health. But most adults will benefit from at least 7-8 hours of sleep.
Similarly sleep deprivation causes these stress hormones (adrenaline and cortisol) to increase and decreases your immune response eventually.
In today’s society- sleep deprivation occurs due to bad sleep routines, irregular sleep wake cycles, shifting of sleep cycles, work or school home-work overload, etc. Other offenders are caffeine, nicotine and alcohol. These disrupt and fragment your sleep and thus your immunity.
In short treasure and protect your sleep to help with your immunity and health.
