Sleep Enough

Here’s just another reason why you should get enough sleep. According to the findings of scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany, adequate sleep increases the function of the immune system substantially, as opposed to getting by on less sleep. At least, this applies for mammals (and we are mammals too).

This theory makes all the sense in the world to me. When you sleep, your body can allocate more resources to warding off disease, germs and parasites. When you are awake, more energy needs to be diverted towards daytime tasks, the job, the spouse, the kids, etc. That’s why the scientists found out that animals that sleep more have more white blood cells – the cells tasked with protecting the body from invaders.

Parasites can be anything like fungus growth, thrush, worms or bacteria that are always seeking to gain a foothold in our bodies. It never occurred to me until recently, that parasites can release bio-toxins into our bodies which can cause symptoms like chronic exhaustion and allergies, which are difficult to diagnose properly. Sleep frees up resources for the body to use in keeping up its defenses against its enemies.

Even though the research so far has only been done on animals and not on human subjects, it is obvious that scientists will encounter the same findings in humans. Humans as a whole are getting less sleep than ever before, but our bodies still haven’t adapted (and probably never will) to this cutback on sleep. So once again, it’s important to remind ourselves that we always need to get enough sleep.