We’ve all heard, over and over, about the benefits of a good night’s sleep.

But if you’re struggling with insomnia, have kids (or cats) that wake you throughout the night, work unusual hours – or simply find that one more chapter, level, or episode keeps leading you to still being awake in the small hours – that can be easier said than done.

A new study, recently published in the Journal of Immunology, however, has drawn even more attention to the requirement for good sleep in order to allow our bodies to rest, reset, and recover.

And that’s because the research, undertaken by scientists at the Dasman Diabetes Institute in Kuwait, proves more than ever that sleep is crucial for the function of our immune systems.

The research involved five healthy individuals, and required them to stay awake for 24 hours, plunging their bodies into an immediate state of sleep deprivation.

Throughout the course of the 24 hour period, researchers took samples of the participants’ blood and found that, as soon as the healthy individuals became sleep deprived, there was a clear change to the monocytes (part of the immune system’s defence process) present in the person’s blood.

They compared the blood samples to data from 237 adults who were considered healthy, but whose BMI varied.

Concerningly, after just 24 hours without sleep, the monocytes in the once healthy individual resembled those more common in obese individuals. And interestingly, the wider study showed that in obese participants, sleep patterns and quality were hampered, signs of inflammation were higher, and unusual monocytes were a regular occurrence.

And why is that a problem?

Well, because the conditions now present in the participants’ blood samples were indicative of conditions that, if present over a longer period, could cause inflammation and a resulting lowering of immune resistance.

That’s because monocytes in a healthy individual are like a security team patrolling a building. When they come across something unusual like a pathogen or inflammation, they will jump into action, kick-starting the body’s immune response.

However, if their normal working patterns are hampered by factors including sleep deprivation, they will not be as successful in their mission, causing inflammation to escalate to chronic levels and potentially serious pathogens to circulate and reproduce in the body.

And in individuals with higher levels of chronic inflammation, there is a known correlation with life-altering diseases including diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Dasman Diabetes Institute Researcher Dr Fatema Al-Rashed, lead author on the study, explained in a statement that the study truly reinforced the importance of a good night’s sleep as a means of safeguarding lifelong health:

“Our findings underscore a growing public health challenge. Advancements in technology, prolonged screen time, and shifting societal norms are increasingly disruptive to regular sleeping hours. This disruption in sleep has profound implications for immune health and overall well-being.”

With all this in mind, perhaps that ‘one last’ level or episode or chapter isn’t worth sacrificing your good night’s sleep for.

After all, sleep is an investment to ensure you can keep watching, reading and playing for decades to come.

And that quality shut-eye has never been more important.

If you thought that was interesting, you might like to read about the mysterious “pyramids” discovered in Antarctica. What are they?