Today’s Wellness Wednesday is another topic on the immune system as we continue our month of “May the Wellness Be With You!”
To recap from our video on YouTube last week: Boosting the Immune System, here are some ways that sleep impact your immune system:
Without getting into too much geeky science stuff that would take way more than one succinct blog post:
…suffice to say that sleep is important to the memory cells of the immune system. Remember, after your body fights an infection, it creates a memory cell that remembers how to ward off the invader in case it ever tries to infect you in the future.
There are many pathways to this immune memory, and some of the cells that are crucial to this pathway like interleukin-2 and T helper cells are formed while you sleep.
Currently, science has noticed that when you are sleeping regularly your immune system activates to help clean out old cells, replenish immune cells as needed and receive energy rich fuels from the rest of the body.
So what can you do to make sure you have full sleep cycles and restful sleep?
- Physical Activity: science shows that exercise directly affects your sleep rhythm. By getting daily physical activity, your body is more likely to engage in deeper sleep and slower brain waves.
- Lights: Limit exposure to your phone at least one hour before sleep. The strong light causes your body to slow or stop production of melatonin, which is what signals your body it’s time to sleep. Work with your body, not against it!
- Diet: We will spend quite a bit of time focusing on nutrition in future posts and videos, but for today we just want to emphasize that eating health impacts your sleep rhythm.
Well, we’re tired just talking about sleep! So hopefully this helped give you some motivation to find some regular sleep, even while in lock down!
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Live Long and Prosper,
The Nerd Chiropractor
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