Sleep deprivation is linked with inflammation & immune system new study reveals

A recent study discovered that chronic sleep deprivation altered the immune cells' DNA and enhanced the generation of immune cells connected to inflammation in a small group of healthy adults.

“Not only were the number of immune cells elevated, but they may be wired and programmed in a different way at the end of the six weeks of sleep restriction,” said study coauthor Cameron McAlpine, an assistant professor of cardiology and neuroscience at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City.

“Together, these two factors could potentially predispose someone for diseases like cardiovascular disease.”

An immune system that is overactive can be damaging and increase the risk of autoimmune illnesses and chronic diseases, according to specialists, but a certain amount of immune system inflammation is required for the body to fight infections and repair wounds.

“This work aligns with views in the field that sleep restriction can increase risk for type 2 diabetes and hypertension,” said Steven Malin, an associate professor in the department of kinesiology and health at Rutgers University in New Jersey.

“Practically then, these findings support ideas to develop good sleep habits such that most of the time you are getting adequate sleep,” added Malin, who was not involved in the study.

Proper sleep heals

The body has to cycle through all four stages of sleep numerous times each night in order to remain healthy. Body rhythms begin to slow down in the first and second stages. This gets us ready for the third stage, a deep, slow-wave sleep, where the body is essentially repairing damage from the day's wear and tear on a cellular level. It also consolidates memories into long-term storage. quickly moving eyes The last stage of sleep, referred to as REM, is when we dream. Missing REM sleep has been linked in studies to memory loss, poor cognitive functioning, heart and other chronic ailments, and early death. On the other hand, extensive study has revealed that sleep, particularly the deepest, most restorative variety, strengthens immune function. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, most adults require seven to eight hours of largely undisturbed sleep to get restorative sleep because each sleep cycle lasts approximately 90 minutes.

An increase in signs of inflammation

The study was small, involving 14 young, healthy people with no sleep issues. But the duration of the study was also quite long, which gave it strength, McAlpine said. “A lot of sleep studies are one day, two days, maybe a week or two,” he said. “But there are very few that look at the influence of sleep over such a long duration of six weeks, which is what we did.” “The results suggest that factors that may modify gene expression of proteins related to inflammation, known as the epigenome, are modified by sleep restriction,” Malin said. “This modification raises the risk for immune cells to be more inflammatory in nature. The study did not perform functional or clinical measures to confirm disease risk, but it does lay (the) foundation for future studies to consider these mechanisms