What happens if you don’t get enough sleep? Blood samples show heart risk.

shorten sleep A small new study suggests that regular consumption may harm immune stem cells and increase the risk of inflammatory diseases and heart disease.

A 6-week analysis of blood samples from 14 healthy volunteers who agreed to reduce their sleep by 1.5 hours each night showed long-lasting changes in the behavior of these stem cells, leading to increased levels of leukocytes that can cause inflammation. found to lead to proliferation. According to a report released Wednesday, Journal of Experimental Medicine.

“The key message from this study is that sleep reduces inflammation and Lack of sleep “It increases inflammation,” said Philip Swirsky, director of the Icahn Mount Sinai Cardiovascular Institute in New York and co-author of the study. There are more cells, and these cells play an important role in inflammation.”

He explained that while some inflammation is necessary to fight infections and heal wounds, too much inflammation can be harmful. persistent inflammation It has been linked to heart and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, he added.

To examine the effects of sleep restriction on the immune system, Swirski and his colleagues conducted experiments in humans and mice.

In the human study, researchers recruited 7 male and 7 female volunteers with an average age of 35 years.

In the first part of the experiment, volunteers were monitored for sleep as they normally would for 6 weeks. The researchers then took blood samples and analyzed their immune cell content. In the next phase, he reduced the volunteers’ sleep by 90 minutes each night for six weeks. Once again, the researchers took blood samples and totaled the number of immune cells.

When Swirski and his colleagues compared data from two sets of blood samples, they found that the number of immune cells increased after six weeks of sleep restriction. Previous animal studies have revealed that inflammation increases as the number of immune cells increases.

In addition, six weeks of sleep deprivation altered the stem cells that generate immune cells. Their basic DNA coding remained the same, but the programming that controlled which bits of genetic material were turned on and off —a process known as epigenetics — changed.

Immune cell numbers may return to normal after a few weeks, but stem cells seem to have a more permanent imprint. Swirski said the more , the longer the trail could be.

These marks on stem cells go through a series of steps that ultimately lead to less diversity among immune cells. Swirski explains that it means that the job may not be completed. So the immune system doesn’t work very well. In the same way that a building crew can’t build a house without a carpenter and a plumber.

Effects of sleep deprivation on aging

The changes Mount Sinai researchers see in their experiments are like mirrors what happens when people get old.

“As a natural consequence of aging, we lose diversity,” said Swirski. “By interrupting sleep, we are accelerating the aging process.”

“Importantly, we can slow down the rate of biological aging through lifestyle, such as getting enough sleep, managing stress, getting enough exercise, and eating healthily,” Swirski said. “We may not live forever, but paying attention to some of these lifestyle factors may help us live longer into old age while maintaining quality of life.”

From clinical observations, chronic sleep deprivation immune systemThe new research provides a mechanism to explain how it happens, said Dr. Stephen Chan, director of the Institute of Vascular Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

“At the cellular level, we fundamentally didn’t understand why sleep is important for regulating the immune system.” Alzheimer’s disease and dementia”

Scientists hope that we can catch up on sleep deprivation and get back to normal.

“It’s becoming clear that that’s not the case,” Chan said. This may be the explanation. ”

He hopes to see more research examining whether the effects of sleep deprivation are permanent.

“This study deserves a lot of follow-up on how long the effects last. How many years, decades, or months will the effects last?”

The new research is “elegant,” said Kristen Knutson, an associate professor in the Center for Circadian and Sleep Medicine at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine.

“They highlighted the long-term effects of sleep disturbances that we don’t recover from quickly, and have shown this in both animal and human studies,” she said. It shows that you can’t make up for it on the weekend by running ragged.”

When people think of the immune system, they think only of infections, says Knutson.

“But it plays a big role in many other health conditions,” she added. “Anything that compromises the immune system can have far-reaching effects.”