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Temporal Links Between Self-Reported Sleep and Antibody Responses to the Influenza Vaccine

  • Special Issue: Sleep Science
  • Published:
International Journal of Behavioral Medicine Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Background

Growing evidence suggests that sleep plays an important role in immunological memory, including antibody responses to vaccination. However, much of the prior research has been carried out in the laboratory limiting the generalizability of the findings. Furthermore, no study has sought to identify sensitive periods prior to or after vaccination where sleep may have a stronger influence on antibody responses.

Methods

Eighty-three healthy young adults completed 13 days of sleep diaries and received the trivalent influenza vaccine on day 3 of the study. Measures of self-reported sleep duration, sleep efficiency, and subjective sleep quality were assessed on each day. Antibody levels to the influenza viral strains were quantified at baseline and 1 and 4 months following influenza vaccination.

Results

Shorter sleep duration, averaged over the collection period, was associated with fewer antibodies to the A/New Caledonia viral strain 1 and 4 months later, independent of baseline antibodies, age, sex, and cohort year. Analyses focused on nightly sleep on the days preceding and after the vaccination revealed that shorter sleep duration on the two nights before the vaccination predicted fewer antibodies 1 and 4 months later. Measures of self-reported sleep efficiency and subjective quality were unrelated to antibody responses to the influenza vaccination.

Conclusion

These findings provide further support for an association between sleep duration and antibody responses to the influenza vaccine and suggest that perhaps sleep on nights prior to vaccination are critical. If replicated, these findings may support sleep as a target for enhancing vaccination efficacy.

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Notes

  1. Associations were also not statistically significant when B/Yamanashi and B/Victoria strains were examined separately.

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Funding

This research was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (MH50430) and supplemental funding from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Socioeconomic Status and Health. It was facilitated by grants from the National, Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to the Pittsburgh Mind-Body Center (HL65111 and HL65112). Dr. Prather’s contribution was supported by a grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (HL1420151).

Author information

Author notes

  1. Aric A. Prather and Sarah D. Pressman contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Aric A. Prather

  2. Department of Psychology & Social Behavior, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA

    Sarah D. Pressman

  3. Department of Psychology and Institute for Policy Research, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA

    Gregory E. Miller

  4. Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Sheldon Cohen

Authors
  1. Aric A. Prather
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  2. Sarah D. Pressman
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  3. Gregory E. Miller
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  4. Sheldon Cohen
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Aric A. Prather or Sarah D. Pressman.

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Informed consent was obtained from all participants in accordance with the Institutional Review Board where this research was conducted.

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The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

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Prather, A.A., Pressman, S.D., Miller, G.E. et al. Temporal Links Between Self-Reported Sleep and Antibody Responses to the Influenza Vaccine. Int.J. Behav. Med. 28, 151–158 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12529-020-09879-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12529-020-09879-4

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