Covid vax efficacy may depend on your sleep cycle

People with less than six hours of sleep per night in the days surrounding Covid-19 vaccination can have a blunted antibody response, according to a new research that stresses the importance of sleep in the vaccination effort. A team led by researchers at the University of Chicago and the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm) conducted a meta-analysis which examined the impact of sleep duration on vaccination against viral illnesses such as influenza and hepatitis. Using the results they compared it to known data on the antibody response to the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine. They found that the weakened antibody response in those with shortened sleep was so profound, it was similar to the decline in Covid-19 antibodies two months following the vaccination. The findings, published in the journal Current Biology, indicates that efforts to promote healthy sleep duration ahead of an immunisation could be an easy way to improve vaccine effectiveness. “Interestingly, we saw the same outcomes in both influenza, which is a respiratory virus, and hepatitis, which affects the liver, suggesting that this effect could extend to all kinds of viruses, including coronaviruses like SARS-CoV-2,” said Karine Spiegel, a research scientist at Inserm.