MADRID, 14 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) –
A review of data from previous studies carried out by a team led by researchers from the University of Chicago (United States and the National Institute of Health and Medical Research of France (Inserm), has revealed that people who slept less than six hours a night in the days before vaccination they had a weaker antibody response, suggesting that promoting restful sleep before vaccination could be a simple way to improve vaccine efficacy, they say in their study, published in the journal ‘Current Biology’.
The most recent work builds on a 2002 study by members of the team showing that sleep restriction in participants decreased their antibody response to influenza vaccination, leading to approximately half the levels of antibodies observed in controls 10 days after inoculation.
Their interest in the work was reignited during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns in 2020, when they began connecting with others who had studied this question and began putting together the meta-analysis.
Across seven studies, which examined the impact of sleep duration on vaccination against viral diseases such as influenza and hepatitis, researchers found that insufficient sleep (defined as less than six hours of sleep per night) on days close to vaccination caused a lower antibody response.
“Insufficient sleep is a behavioral factor that can be corrected prior to vaccination and may not only enhance but also amplify the vaccine response,” explains Eve Van Cauter, UChicago Professor Emeritus of Medicine and lead author of the meta-analysis. .
“We know that people respond differently to vaccination based on their age, gender, existing medical conditions, and other factors that cannot be easily changed,” he continued. “Having easily modifiable behavior that can be adjusted around the time appointment offers something that can be controlled and is likely to improve the body’s response.
This association was only seen in studies that objectively assessed sleep duration using wearable activity trackers or laboratory sleep studies. Self-reported sleep duration was not a predictor of vaccine response.
The researchers noted that while the relationship was strong in men, it was weaker and not statistically significant in women. They argue that this was probably because none of the studies in women took into account variations in sex hormone levels depending on the menstrual cycle, contraceptive use, and menopausal status.
“The relationship between sleep and vaccine efficacy could be of great concern for people with irregular work schedules, especially shift workers, who often have reduced sleep duration,” Van Cauter said. This is something that people should consider planning to make sure they are getting enough sleep in the week before and after their vaccinations.”
Using the results of the meta-analysis and comparing them to known data on the antibody response to the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, the researchers estimated that the effects of insufficient sleep on the vaccine response would be equivalent to two months of decreased antibodies. after vaccination.
“Interestingly, we observed the same results in both influenza, which is a respiratory virus, and hepatitis, which affects the liver, suggesting that this effect could extend to all types of viruses, including coronaviruses such as SARS-CoV. “2,” says Karine Spiegel, PhD, first author of the study and a research scientist at Inserm, “Overall, we see these results as a call to action.”
The researchers hope the study will inspire further research into the phenomenon to clarify the effects in men and women, as well as to better understand how different vaccines may be affected by sleep duration and how sleep might be optimized to promote a better response to the vaccine.
“We need much larger studies that monitor the sexual hormonal milieu in women in particular,” Spiegel cautions. “We also need a better definition of how many days of short sleep duration affect the antibody response, and whether it’s just before the vaccine, or also during and after”.
As he points out, “large-scale studies that take behavioral, demographic, and hormonal characteristics into account should provide new insights that translate into measurable effects on vaccine efficacy.”
Van Cauter adds that “the immune system is not the only one modulated by sleep. Insufficient sleep is related to other health problems, such as an increased risk of developing obesity, diabetes or hypertension,” he recalls. “Vaccines are a tool important in preventing and reducing the impact of infectious diseases, and we believe they can be applied with a simple behavior change: getting enough sleep.”
