Effect of Sleep Deprivation to Immune System Presents Physical Stress

A study looks at white blood cell counts after 29 hours of continuous wakefulness. Severe sleep deprivation shocks a person’s immune system into action, presenting the same type of prompt response revealed during exposure to stress, according to a new study.

Researchers from Netherlands and United Kingdom compared the white blood cell counts of 15 healthy young men under normal condition and severely sleep-deprived conditions. The great differences were seen in the white blood cells commonly known as granulocytes. It revealed a loss of day and night
rhythmicity, together with increased numbers, especially at night.

Future study will show the molecular mechanisms behind this immediate stress response and investigate its role in the development of diseases related with chronic sleep loss, according to the study’s lead author, Katrin Ackermann, Phd. Ackerman further said that if the study will be confirmed with more data, it will definitely have implications for clinical practice and for professions that comes with long-term sleep loss like rotating shift work.

Previous researches have linked sleep restriction and sleep deprivation with the development of diseases such as obesity, diabetes and hypertension. Others have revealed that sleep helps achieve the functioning of the immune system, and that severe sleep deprivation is a risk factor for immune system deficiency.

For the said study, white blood cells were categorized and observed from 15 young men following a strict schedule of eight hours of sleep each day for the entire week. The participants were exposes to at least 15 minutes of outdoor light within the first 90 minutes after waking up and refrain from taking alcohol, caffeine or medication during the last three days of the study. All of which was designed to alleviate their circadian clocks and minimize sleep deprivation before a thorough clinical study. 

White blood cell counts in a normal sleep and wake cycle were compared to the numbers produced during the second part of the study, in which blood samples were collected during 29 hours of continual wakefulness.

Ackerman and her team eventually concluded that granulocytes quickly reacted to the physical stress of sleep loss and directly reflected the body’s stress response. Ackerman is a postdoctoral researcher at the Eramus MC University Medical Center Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

There are lots of effective ways to avoid sleep deprivation such as over the counter sleeping aids and other sleep inducing foods.

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