Sleep plays a critical role in how the body restores immune strength. In this NightOwling lesson, circadian health expert and medical scientist Logan Pendergrast, Ph.D., explains how deep and REM sleep help immune cells communicate, remember pathogens, and mount effective defenses.
Dr. Pendergrast discusses how disrupted or shortened sleep can weaken these coordinated responses, reducing the body’s ability to fight off illness. This segment connects the science of immune recovery with real-world outcomes, showing why consistent rest is one of the most powerful defenses for long-term health.
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So next here we'll talk about the immune
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system. And the immune system is
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responsible for what we would expect
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which is our immunity. How our body
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fights off diseases. And it's during
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slowwave sleep or what we call REM sleep
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as we mentioned in the last slide that
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we see an activation of our immune
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cells. We see that our immune cells are
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more effectively communicating with one
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another to remember and respond to
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antigens or disease-causing materials.
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We also see an increase in the release
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of cytoines which are proteins that our
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immune cells use to respond to diseases.
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Now if we flip this, we see that sleep
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loss leads to a compromised immune
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system function. And this is shown when
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we look at the science and we see that
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individuals who sleep less than 6 hours
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a day are four times likelier to uh
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obtain a viral infection or a common
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Hold.
