Getting a good night’s rest is essential for one’s overall health and well-being. Now scientists have discovered new evidence that sleeping well may make you less vulnerable to infections. Researchers at the University of Bergen recruited medical students working in doctors’ surgeries to hand out short questionnaires to patients, asking about sleep quality and recent infections. Their findings suggest that patients who reported sleeping too little or too much were more likely to report a recent infection, and patients who experienced chronic sleep problems were more likely to require antibiotics.

The study, authored by Dr. Ingeborg Forthun and published in Frontiers in Psychiatry, aimed to evaluate the association between sleep and infection among patients in primary care, where sleep problems are more prevalent. Previous studies have shown that sleep disturbances raise the risk of infection. In this study, patients who slept for less than six hours a night had a 27% greater chance of reporting an infection, while patients sleeping for more than nine hours had a 44% greater chance of reporting one. Moreover, less than six hours of sleep or chronic insomnia raised the risk of requiring antibiotics to overcome an infection.

Dr. Forthun noted that the higher risk of reporting an infection among patients who reported short or long sleep duration is not surprising, as having an infection can cause both poor sleep and sleepiness. However, the higher risk of an infection among those with chronic insomnia implies that poor sleep can make one more susceptible to infection.

While there is potential for recall bias in the study, as people may not necessarily recall sleep or health issues accurately, the design allowed for the collection of data from a large study group experiencing real-world conditions. If the link between sleep and infection can be confirmed, it may be possible to minimize antibiotic use and protect people against infections before they happen.