New research reveals that a sound sleep not strengthens the response-memory of your immune system when it comes to killing bad bacteria and viruses as they enter your body. The paper was published in the journal Trends in Neurosciences.
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The immune system "remembers" an encounter with a bacteria or virus by collecting fragments from the bug to create memory T cells, which last for months or years and help the body recognize a previous infection and quickly respond. These memory T cells appear to abstract "gist information" about the pathogens. The selection of "gist information" allows memory T cells to detect new pathogens that are similar, but not identical, to previously encountered bacteria or viruses.
"The idea that long-term memory formation is a function of sleep effective in all organismic systems is entirely new in our view," said senior study author Jan Born from University of Tuebingen.
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"We consider our approach toward a unifying concept of biological long-term memory formation, in which sleep plays a critical role, a new development in sleep research and memory research," he said.
Studies in humans have shown that long-term increases in memory T cells are associated with deep slow-wave sleep on the nights after vaccination.
"If we didn't sleep, then the immune system might focus on the wrong parts of the pathogen," Born added.
