Get adequate Sleep
Can adequate sleep improve your immune system?
Get adequate sleep – Overview
•Melatonin is produced about 90 minutes after falling asleep in a darkened room. It pushes you into a deeper sleep.
•There are nearly a thousand studies showing that melatonin supplementation is important in cancer prevention.
•Melatonin supplementation during chemotherapy has been repeatedly shown to reduce side-effects.
•Studies have shown that irregular sleeping habits are also associated with higher breast cancer levels.
•Night shift working in men has been shown to triple the rate of prostate cancer and double the rate of bowel cancer.
•The IARC has declared lack of sleep a carcinogen. Melatonin is thus an anti-cancer agent
Proper Sleep.
Sleep and the circadian system exert a strong regulatory influence on immune functions. Prolonged sleep curtailment produces pro-inflammatory cytokines, best described as chronic low-grade inflammation, and also produce immunodeficiency, which both have detrimental effects on health. (read study)
Importance of Sleep
Source: CANCERactive
Melatonin and cancer
Melatonin is produced about 90 minutes after falling asleep in a fully darkened room. It pushes you into a deeper sleep. Production is light sensitive and regulatory “sensors” have been found in the retina. Several studies (e.g. The Boston Nurses Study, one on night-shift working) have shown that irregular sleeping habits and sleeping in synthetic light, lower the production of the hormone and are also associated with higher breast cancer levels. Conversely, blind women develop less breast cancer.
Research has shown that melatonin regulates excess oestrogen levels and excess IGF-1 levels. Both drive cancer and IARC has declared lack of sleep a carcinogen. Melatonin is thus an anti-cancer agent.
Night shift working in men has been shown to triple the rate of prostate cancer, double the rate of bowel cancer, increase the rate of lung cancer by 79 per cent and increase rates of bladder cancer by 70 per cent. (Cancer Watch: University of Quebec)
It is now known that EMF´s (Electromagnetic frequencies) – the sort found from WIFI to mobile phones, to masts etc – can also lower melatonin levels in the body, allowing oestrogen and IGF-1 levels to increase.
The discovery of melatonin in the bone marrow has led to new views on its role in a stronger immune system.
However, the link between lowered levels of melatonin in the bone marrow and the negative effects of EMFs has spawned a debate about leukaemia and particularly childhood leukaemia.
There are nearly a thousand studies showing that melatonin supplementation has important oncostatic effects: both in cancer prevention, and also during chemotherapy, where it has been repeatedly shown to reduce side-effects.
Supplements of 3 to 6 mgs are commonly taken about 30 minutes before going to bed. Levels above 10 mgs have been thought to cause vivid dreams and hallucination, but there is little scientific evidence. The hormone is freely available over the counter in many countries from Thailand to the USA. But not in the UK or Europe. Research studies suggest that melatonin may act far better when plant-derived rather than synthetic. The plant derived version is called Asphalia.
Studies on Sleep
The key points of this study included:
Sleep-deprivation experiments in both animals and humans provide the best evidence for a crucial role of sleep in the immune response. The results of these experiments show some inconsistencies, thereby underlining the complexities of measuring the interaction between different durations of sleep deprivation and different immune components. However, in humans, general patterns emerge, indicating that sleep deprivation has detrimental effects on immune-cell number, function and cytokine production.
There is also emerging evidence that chronic partial sleep loss might be more detrimental to immune function than short-term total sleep loss. This is important because it is chronic partial sleep loss that burdens the current population, through shift work, pressured lifestyles, and other stresses and changes in society.
Updated 2024