— A very important result, not least in light of the fact that insufficient sleep has become increasingly common in our 24-hour society. Even better, lack of sleep is something that most people can fix quite easily themselves, says sleep researcher Christian Benedict, senior lecturer at Uppsala University, to the newspaper.
Suspicions that sleep deprivation can weaken the immune system’s ability to produce protective antibodies after a vaccination have been around for a long time, but have only been investigated in seven small studies. Benedict tells UNT that the results of the individual studies have not been clear-cut, so the researchers have now combined the data from them for a larger basis for analysis.
— This has meant that we can now say with great certainty that lack of sleep around the time of vaccination makes it less effective, says Christian Benedict, to UNT.
The studies included vaccines against influenza or the jaundice virus. The so-called meta-analysis has been published in the scientific journal Current Biology.