- With Mayo Clinic sleep specialist
Timothy Morgenthaler, M.D.
Risk factors (1)
- Sleep and weight gain: What's the connection?
Causes (1)
- Late-day exercise: Can it cause insomnia?
Complications (1)
- Lack of sleep: Can it make you sick?
Treatments and drugs (2)
- Ambien: Is dependence a concern?
- Sleep aids: Could antihistamines help me sleep?
Lifestyle and home remedies (6)
- How many hours of sleep are enough?
- Foods that help you sleep
- Insomnia: How do I stay asleep?
- see all in Lifestyle and home remedies
Alternative medicine (1)
- Valerian: A safe and effective herbal sleep aid?
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Question
Lack of sleep: Can it make you sick?
I'm having trouble sleeping lately. Does this increase my chances of getting sick?
Answer
from Timothy Morgenthaler, M.D.
Yes, lack of sleep can affect your immune system. Studies show that people who don't get a good night's sleep or who don't get enough sleep are more likely to get sick after being exposed to a virus, such as the common cold. Lack of sleep can also affect how fast you recover if you do get sick.
During sleep, your immune system releases proteins called cytokines. These substances increase in the presence of an infection, inflammation and stress. Increased cytokines are necessary in fighting infection and regulating deeper sleep. In addition, other infection-fighting cells are reduced during periods of sleep deprivation. So, your body needs sleep to fight infectious diseases.
How much sleep do you need to bolster your immune system? The optimal amount of sleep for most adults is seven to eight hours a night. School-aged children and adolescents need nine or more hours of sleep a night.
But be careful; more sleep is not always better. For adults, sleeping more than nine to 10 hours a night has been associated with weight gain, heart problems, stroke, sleep disorders, depression and other health concerns.
Next questionAmbien: Is dependence a concern?
- Cohen S, et al. Sleep habits and susceptibility to the common cold. Archives of Internal Medicine. 2009;169:62.
- Your guide to healthy sleep. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/public/sleep/healthy_sleep.pdf. Accessed Jan. 28, 2010.
- Lange T, et al. Shift of monocyte function toward cellular immunity during sleep. Archives of Internal Medicine. 2006;166:1695.
- Chaput JP, et al. The association between sleep duration and weight gain in adults: A 6-year prospective study from the Quebec Family Study. Sleep. 2008;31:517.
- Grandner MA, et al. Who are the long sleepers? Towards an understanding of the mortality relationship. Sleep Medicine Reviews. 2007;11:341.
- Chen JC, et al. Sleep duration and risk of ischemic stroke in postmenopausal women. Stroke. 2008;39:3185.
Find Mayo Clinic on