A claim you hear on longevity podcasts

Does sleep deprivation raise inflammation markers?

Leaning for. Of 13 studies that test it, 8 agree, 3 partly agree and 2 disagree.

Best for:
anyone who sleeps short and wonders what it does to inflammation, including CRP.
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The claim checked: Keeping people awake for part of the night raises their inflammatory markers Hear it at 43:49

What do the studies say?

Leaning for

Eight of 13 studies found lab sleep loss raised an inflammatory marker, such as CRP rising to 145% of baseline after 5 short nights. Both pooled analyses found no rise after a single night. One found rises after several nights, but only once an outlier study was set aside. A trial in firefighters found no rise.

Computed from 13 studies that test this point, each judged by two readers, 1 of them from the abstract alone. 7 more studies are waiting for a full read and do not count yet.

What was said on the podcast?

“if you interrupt people's sleep and and deprive them of sleep and they do this experimentally you go into the sleep lab and they just stop you from sleeping for the first four hours then they let you go to sleep your inflammatory markers start rising dramatically”
Leonard Calabrese, a guest on The Dr. Hyman Show · The Secrets to Creating a Healthy Immune System · 43:49 on YouTube
He is retelling a sleep-lab study from Michael Irwin's group at UCLA, named just before. The study votes, not the retelling.
Comes up in 48 episodes of the show.
The study behind the claim The retelling matches it

What did the study actually test?

On tape: a sleep lab that keeps people awake for the first four hours of the night, from Michael Irwin's group. It matches: awake from 11 pm to 3 am, and the next morning monocytes made more IL-6 and TNF. The markers were measured in blood cells, not as circulating levels such as CRP. Sleep deprivation and activation of morning levels of cellular and genomic markers of inflammation. Arch Intern Med, 2006. Within-person lab study: three baseline days, then one night awake from 11 pm to 3 am, 30 healthy adults.

What was saidWhat the study did
What was given Matches Kept awake for the first four hours of the night, then allowed to sleep Awake from 11 pm to 3 am, then sleep
Compared with Matches Normal sleep Morning levels after uninterrupted sleep in the same people
What was measured Matches Inflammatory markers rise Monocyte production of IL-6 and TNF, and their messenger RNA
Who took part Matches People 30 healthy adults

What it found

“In the morning after a night of sleep loss, monocyte production of interleukin 6 and tumor necrosis factor alpha was significantly greater compared with morning levels following uninterrupted sleep.”

PMID 16983055

How the authors extend it

“Sleep loss induces a functional alteration of the monocyte proinflammatory cytokine response.”

PMID 16983055

NIH extramural and non-US government grants (PubMed publication types); the full text is paywalled, so the funding statement was not read. Two readers agreed on the label.

The point checked Leaning for

Experimentally depriving people of sleep raises their inflammatory markers

Agree 8

controlled trial · 2004 · landmark

“The results of these two experiments demonstrate that both acute TSD and short-term PSD raise basal concentrations of CRP in healthy volunteers, without signs or symptoms of infection.”

Effect of sleep loss on C-reactive protein, an inflammatory marker of cardiovascular risk. J Am Coll Cardiol
Who: Experiment 1: 10 healthy men aged 22-37; Experiment 2: 10 healthy adults (6 men, 4 women) aged 26-38, randomized 5 to partial sleep deprivation and 5 to control (one deprivation subject excluded)
PMID 14975482

controlled trial · 2007 · landmark

“The current study shows that sleep restriction to 50% of the habitual time over 10 days induces significant increases of IL-6 plasma levels.”

Elevated inflammatory markers in response to prolonged sleep restriction are associated with increased pain experience in healthy volunteers. Sleep
Who: 18 healthy volunteers (6 women, 12 men) aged 21-40, nonsmokers, BMI <29, normal sleepers, in a GCRC inpatient protocol (placebo arm of a larger endotoxin study)
PMID 17910386

other primary study · 2009 · landmark

“Serum CRP increased significantly after sleep restriction (145% [ p <0.05] of baseline levels) with the elevation being even more pronounced after recovery sleep (231% [ p <0.05] of baseline levels; Figure 2 ).”

Sleep restriction increases the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases by augmenting proinflammatory responses through IL-17 and CRP. PLoS One
Who: 19 healthy men aged 19-29 (mean 23.1) with regular sleep and habitual sleep of 7-9 h
PMID 19240794

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trial or observed group · 2010

“Notably, both females and males showed a marked increase in the stimulated production of IL-6 and TNF-α in the morning immediately after PSD, consistent with our prior findings (Irwin et al., 2006).”

Sleep loss activates cellular markers of inflammation: sex differences. Brain Behav Immun
Who: 26 medically healthy adults (11 women, 15 men), mean age about 36-37, never mentally ill, nonsmokers, regular sleepers
PMID 19520155

other primary study · 2013

“A week of mild sleep restriction in this study resulted in a significant rise of 24-h IL-6 plasma levels compared with baseline.”

Effects of recovery sleep after one work week of mild sleep restriction on interleukin-6 and cortisol secretion and daytime sleepiness and performance. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab
Who: 30 healthy normal sleepers (16 men, 14 women) aged 18-34, mean BMI 23.6
PMID 23941878

other primary study · 2015

“In the morning after a night of sleep loss, there was greater spontaneous production of IL-6 and TNF-α in peripheral blood monocyte populations relative to morning levels following uninterrupted sleep at baseline, and this activation persisted in monocytes that were co-producing IL-6 and TNF-α even after a night of recovery sleep.”

Sleep loss activates cellular inflammation and signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT) family proteins in humans. Brain Behav Immun
Who: 24 healthy adults (16 women, 8 men) aged 36-76 (mean 59.5), BMI <30, nonsmokers, good sleepers, never mentally ill
PMID 25451613

other primary study · 2022

“Paired samples t -tests revealed that relative to baseline (mean = 66.78, SD = 37.86), IL-6 levels were significantly increased following one night of sleep deprivation (mean = 140.95, SD = 125.48), t (22) = −3.031, p < 0.01, d = 0.63.”

Acute sleep deprivation disrupts emotion, cognition, inflammation, and cortisol in young healthy adults. Front Behav Neurosci
Who: 23 healthy young adults (9 women, 14 men), mean age 20.78, without sleep disorder, sleep disturbance or depression
PMID 36212194

other primary study · 2006 · landmark · cited on tape · read from the abstract

“In the morning after a night of sleep loss, monocyte production of interleukin 6 and tumor necrosis factor alpha was significantly greater compared with morning levels following uninterrupted sleep.”

Sleep deprivation and activation of morning levels of cellular and genomic markers of inflammation. Arch Intern Med
Who: 30 healthy adults
PMID 16983055

Partly agree 3

pooled analysis · 2026 · landmark

“Notably, one night of sleep deprivation, either total or partial, did not significantly increase inflammation.”

Effects of Experimental Sleep Deprivation on Peripheral Inflammation: An Updated Meta-Analysis of Human Studies. J Sleep Res
Who: Healthy adults aged 18 or older without psychiatric or medical comorbidities in 35 experimental or quasi-experimental sleep deprivation studies (mean age 26.93, 26.88% female)
PMID 40474574

trial or observed group · 2013

“An important finding is that the effects are not present across the entire 24-hour cycle, but instead confined to shorter time periods across the 24-hour window.”

Effects of sustained sleep restriction on mitogen-stimulated cytokines, chemokines and T helper 1/ T helper 2 balance in humans. PLoS One
Who: 9 healthy non-smoking men aged 23-28 with habitual sleep need of 7.0-8.5 h
PMID 24349251

other primary study · 2015

“After a night of PSD and recovery sleep, younger subjects (less than 40 y) showed robust increases in TLR-4 activation of monocytic production of TNF-α and/or IL-6 compared to baseline (P < 0.05), with no change in the older subjects (60 y or older) (P > 0.5) (Figure 2).”

Sleep deprivation and divergent toll-like receptor-4 activation of cellular inflammation in aging. Sleep
Who: 70 healthy community-dwelling adults: 21 aged 25-39 and 49 aged 60-84, nonsmokers, BMI <40, normal sleepers
PMID 25325509

Disagree 2

pooled analysis · 2016 · landmark

“Neither experimental sleep deprivation nor sleep restriction was associated with CRP, IL-6, or TNF.”

Sleep Disturbance, Sleep Duration, and Inflammation: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Cohort Studies and Experimental Sleep Deprivation. Biol Psychiatry
Who: Adult humans across 72 studies; the experimental part pooled 17 experimental sleep deprivation or sleep restriction studies
PMID 26140821

other primary study · 2015

“Participants’ IL-6 levels increased in both conditions suggesting that the sleep restriction duration and/or period may not have been a significant enough stressor to affect this cytokine over and above any disturbance caused by physical work.”

The Impact of Sleep Restriction and Simulated Physical Firefighting Work on Acute Inflammatory Stress Responses. PLoS One
Who: 35 Australian volunteer and salaried wildland firefighters (30 men, 5 women), mean age 39, without heart disease, diabetes, respiratory or sleep disorders
PMID 26378783

What else was said but not tested?

  • The inflammatory markers come from the brain
  • Sleep is a master switch of the immune system

More on sleep and light

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