本文非一对一翻译，仅供参考。Vaccines get all the glory, but it is really the immune system that does the heavy lifting. Indeed, those with weak immune systems often benefit little from vaccines. Aware of this, researchers have long thought that people deprived of sleep also ought to benefit less from vaccines, as sleeping less is thought to reduce immune function. A new analysis reveals that this is clearly the case—though only in men.使人类免受疾病威胁的真正功臣是人体自身的免疫力，而非疫苗。缺乏睡眠的人，疫苗起到的免疫效力低。而这种表现只出现在男性群体中。 The immune system is metabolically expensive for the body to operate. When resources run low, it cannot function as well as it might when well supported. This is why people who are profoundly cold for long periods of time tend to fall ill—their bodies are burning calories to stay warm that might otherwise have been used to fuel their defence.免疫系统的运行非常耗体力。当人体体力差的时候，免疫力就低下。长期处于低温下的人，会更容易生病，因为身体需要燃烧热量来保持温度。 The immune system is similarly hamstrung by a lack of sleep since a number of its key components, such as the white blood cells that produce antibodies, are predominantly made by the body when a person is slumbering. Yet it has remained unclear whether poor sleep at a time of vaccination leads to reduced immune benefits.缺乏睡眠会阻碍免疫系统的工作。但为什么睡眠不足会影响疫苗的免疫效力尚未明确。 Vaccines work by presenting the immune system with the foreign material of a pathogen. The system reacts by making antibodies, though these do not last for ever—they circulate in great numbers shortly after a real or vaccine-induced invasion but their population wanes over time. Eventually, another shot of vaccine is needed to boost the antibody count.疫苗被注射后，就会被人体的免疫系统视为一个病原体，从而使免疫系统产生抗体。但并不是永久的，所以，需要通过注射加强针来提高效力。 For their study, Karine Spiegel at the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research and Eve Van Cauter at the University of Chicago speculated that insufficient sleep might damage the ability of the immune system to react to vaccines and thus result in fewer circulating antibodies. They pooled the results of seven studies in which a total of 603 participants between the ages of 18 and 60 had had their antibody response to vaccines monitored and who had also been asked how many hours of sleep they were getting each night.研究人员表示：睡眠不足会破坏免疫系统对疫苗的反应能力，从而不能够产生足够的抗体。 Dr Spiegel found that men showed a strong relationship between insufficient sleep (defined as fewer than six hours of kip a day) and antibody response. The magnitude of the effect, when sleep duration was recorded objectively by a lab rather than self-reported by a patient, was similar to the amount of antibody waning seen in an average person two months after being given the Pfizer-BioNTech covid-19 jab. The vaccines given to sleep-deprived men, therefore, still provided protection but the effect was less potent from the start and lasted for less time, on average.调查发现在男性群体中，睡眠不足（少于六个小时）与抗体反应有着强烈的关系。 比如辉瑞的新冠疫苗注射到睡眠不足的男性中，疫苗的效力就不那么强，而且持续时间也不会长。 The results were published this week in Current Biology. Dr Spiegel says that encouraging patients to get plenty of sleep before and after a vaccination appointment is an ideal way for a medical system to maximise its vaccine stock and ensure that the benefits granted are as large as possible.因此，研究人员建议人们在疫苗预约后，要好好休息，保证充足的睡眠，这样才保证疫苗发挥最大的效力。 As for why the results in women were not significant, Dr Spiegel and her colleagues theorise that sleep affects female response to vaccines too but that hormone interference, driven by varying stages of the menstrual cycle, contraception and hormone-replacement therapies, is probably altering immune response in profound and unknown ways that throw off the results. It is a subject area that urgently needs more attention, argue the researchers.至于为什么这种现象没有出现在女性群体，可能是因为荷尔蒙的原因。 Vaccines are an important tool in the world’s armoury against disease and there is no getting around the fact that developing and adminstering them is a difficult and expensive process. But patients could at least be encouraged to give their immune system a rest before getting jabbed. It costs nothing, and could pay considerable dividends. ■疫苗是应对疾病的重要工具，所以一切能提升疫苗效力的研究都值得关注。
