Sunday, October 13, 2013
Is that extra hour of sleep worth giving up?
Are you the type of person that sacrifices that extra hour of sleep to get other work done? Well, if so you could be hurting your health more than you actually know. A study done by the University of Surrey Sleep Research Centre looked at how inefficient sleep affects your overall health. Certain genes that are associated with the homeostasis of your body are up regulated or down regulated. These genes are involved in chromatin remodeling, regulation of gene expression, immune and stress responses, and metabolism.
In this study, the transcriptome was analyzed in blood samples that found 711 genes associated with sleep deprivation that were either up regulated or down regulated from the normal control. With these changes in gene expression, the body's immune response is altered and so is its ability to manage stress. Some of these abnormal gene expressions had to deal with leukocyte functions that are related to an increase in immune and inflammatory response.
With inefficient sleep your body is more prone to negative health outcomes from these alterations in your body. In class we talked about homeostasis, and how our body responds to an acute stress. But when we are constantly applying a stress in our lives our immune response is altered because it is over working allowing for diseases or sickness to nestle its way in. With insufficient sleep, your body doesn't get that time to manage itself back to homeostasis and prepare for the next busy day so it makes changes to try and cope for that loss which puts your body at risk for alterations.
So when you are looking to stay up later than normal to study for a test or get up early to get a head start on the day, make sure you make accommodations to get an appropriate amount of sleep. The control for this study had 8.5 hours of sleep, which correlated to a healthier life.
References:
Moller-Levet C, Archer S, Bucca G, Laing E, Slak A, Kabiljo R, Lo J, Santhi N, von Shantz M, Smith C, et al. 2013. Effects of insufficient sleep on carcadian rhythmicity and expression amplitude of the human blood transcriptome. PNAS. 110(12): E1132-E1141.
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Graham, did they mention anything about how people differ in the amount of sleep needed to perform at their best? I know when I get 8.5 hours of sleep, I feel more tired throughout the day. My target is a good 7.5 hours of sleep for me to feel awake and stimulated throughout the day. I'm not sure whether I've deceived myself throughout the years, or if this is actually true. In this study, was 8.5 hours the optimal amount of sleep time, or was it just the control? Did they look into any amounts of sleep greater than 8.5 hours, and whether that was too much sleep?
ReplyDeleteI believe they did look at time under and over the 8.5 hours of sleep. The time over, allowed for normal gene regulation for the body but time underneath the 8.5 hours tested resulted in over and under expression of specific genes that causes problems. I know that that was just the average time in the subjects tested that showed normal gene expression. This study is not saying that 8.5 hours is the time NEEDED but more suggesting that when you get less than your normal amount of sleep your body tries to maintain homeostasis and in this process there are consequences of not getting your regular amount of sleep. For the comment of too much sleep where you feel groggy, I get the same problem and they did not mention anything about that but I do wonder why that happens.
DeleteThe optimal amount of sleep one would need would indeed vary from one person to another because there are factors that affect this value (like age, homeostatic condition, stress, or even gender). Regardless of this optimal time though, any amount of sleep below 5 hours and above 10 hours are detrimental to overall health if done chronically, as shown by a previous blog post about hyperinsomnia. Both undersleeping and oversleeping affects the immune, endocrine, and metabolic pathways but the mechanisms of action aren't fully understood. Most think it has to do with changing levels of leptin and ghrelin, which would facilitate the development of obesity and impaired glycemic control, both of which can lead to cardiovascular disease.
ReplyDeleteBecause leptin and ghrelin are dependent on a person's appetite, metabolism, and body energy expenditure, the amount of sleep that is optimal for a given person would vary.
Source:
Cappuccio, F. et al. 2010. Sleep Duration and All-Cause Mortality: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Prospective Studies. Sleep. 33(5): 585-592.
Interesting post. Do you know how naps factor in? Can someone get back some of the sleep they lost the night before by taking naps during the following day? Would this restore the homeostatic balance or have no impact on homeostasis?
ReplyDeleteTo be honest I do not think it works like that. I feel like once you have deprived yourself of sleep, what is done is done. But I am not sure how naps play a role in this issue.
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