The Certified Prick by Gwenn Canlas
COVID-19

Connection Between Sleep And COVID-19

Dec 26, 2020, 5:16 PM
Gwenn Canlas

Gwenn Canlas

Columnist

A strange connection between COVID-19 and sleep

What if I told you that sleep could be a key to ending the pandemic?

Recent research found a strange connection between COVID-19 and sleep.

In January of this year, Feixiong Cheng, a data analyst at the Cleveland Clinic used artificial intelligence in his lab to search for hidden clues in the structure of the coronavirus to predict how it invaded human cells, and what might stop it.

Melatonin Effect

One observation becomes very apparent: Melatonin could potentially impede the virus.

Melatonin is the hormone that helps you get a good night’s sleep. It is a hormone produced in the brain’s pineal gland that regulates the body’s sleep-wake cycles.

Research suggests that melatonin plays other significant roles in the body beyond sleep. It plays a part in calibrating the immune system.

Considerable research has emerged in this relationship. It’s a fascinating connection and partly explains why sleep is such a vital tool for immune system repair.

Melatonin acts as a moderator to help keep our self-protective responses from going out of control—which happens to be the basic problem that can quickly turn a mild case of COVID-19 into a life-threatening situation.

Better Chances Of Survival

For months, Cheng and colleagues put together the data from thousands of patients who were seen at his medical center.

In results published recently, melatonin’s positive effects continued to stand out.

Patients taking melatonin had considerably lower odds of developing COVID-19, much less dying of it.

In October, a study at Columbia University found that intubated patients had better chances of survival if they received melatonin.

So, as you do everything you can right now to support and strengthen your immunity, here are some findings of melatonin and immune function you’ll want to know about.

  1. Helps Flip The Immune System’s “On Switch”

Our white blood cells, the main player in the body’s immune function, have melatonin receptors. Melatonin appears to be a factor in “turning on” the activity of T-cells, a special type of white blood cell, and enhancing the function of T-cell helper lymphocytes.

  1. Provides Immune Cells With Antioxidant Protection

Melatonin is a special kind of “clean” antioxidant. It’s able to protect cells without triggering the production of free radicals. This is important for immune cells, including phagocyte cells. Think of phagocyte immune cells as little Pac Men traveling through your bloodstream gobbling up pathogens. Studies show that melatonin helps to optimize phagocyte action.

  1. Protects Aging Immune Systems

Most of us will experience an age-related dip in immune function beginning somewhere in our 30s or 40s. The body’s melatonin production starts to drop around the same time. Research shows these two events are connected.

In one study, researchers gave aging mice a melatonin supplement overnight and found that mice began to produce greater numbers of immune molecules.

Researchers were able to predict immune function based on the amount of melatonin in the mice’s bloodstreams just before bedtime.

This suggests that taking a melatonin supplement could make a difference for older adults trying to boost their immunity.

This connection between age, immunity, and melatonin levels makes so much sense because children, who are much less likely to have severe COVID-19 symptoms, have as much as 10 times the amount of natural melatonin production as older adults.

Other factors give children healthier immune function, but this may go a long way toward explaining why youth is so protective when it comes to coronavirus risk.

  1. Offers Special Help For Lung Injury

Recent research has shown that melatonin binds to the receptors associated with COVID-19’s attack on the lungs. By getting to these receptors first, melatonin may offer help in blunting injury to the lungs from the coronavirus.

This connection between melatonin and immunity explains how low melatonin levels may be a reason why people are more likely to get sick when they are jet-lagged. It also helps to explain why getting a good night’s sleep helps to boost our immune systems — it’s when our melatonin levels are naturally at their highest!

Sleep In The Dark

Here’s a tip for enhancing your body’s natural melatonin production: sleep in a very dark room.

No night lights or glowing screens allowed!

The benefits of sleep extend throughout the body.

Sleep also helps to regulate metabolism, including glucose, and mechanisms controlling appetite and weight gain.

Effect On Vaccines

All of these bear directly on COVID-19, as risk factors for severe cases include diabetes, obesity, and sleep apnea.

Even in the short term, getting enough deep, slow-wave sleep will optimize your metabolism and make you maximally prepared should you fall ill.

These effects may even bear on vaccination.

Flu shots appear to be more effective among people who have slept well in the days preceding getting one.

Dream COVID Away!

Here is the summary of what researchers, from the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and the University of Texas at San Antonio, had to say: Significant data shows that melatonin limits virus-related diseases and would also likely be beneficial in COVID-19 patients.

Now seems like an ideal time to get serious about getting enough sleep. Sleep like your life depends on it. Hopefully, it won’t.

Isn’t this an exciting find? Stay safe and stay home. And in the meantime, sweet dreams!

For comments and suggestions email certified_prick@yahoo.com


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