Global Bioweather

“we forecast your wellbeing”

USA  |  Canada  |  United Kingdom & Ireland  |  Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg   |   Norway, Sweden, Denmark   |   Australia   |  New Zealand

Home  |  Resources  |  Space Weather   |   Media Centre  |  About Us  |  Disclaimer

Noise and the immune system

No one likes to be kept awake for days or weeks at end. Human studies are, therefore, limited in their effectiveness. Be honest, do you care much whether a laboratory rat of mouse is being kept awake for scientific reasons? Perhaps you may care a little if you knew that those animals will become quite ill and eventually die when sleep deprived over lengthy periods.

For example, in one study, a group of mice were first immunized against influenza and then exposed to the virus. Half of the group were kept awake for days while the other half was allowed to sleep normally. After three days, the immune system of the group with normal sleep patterns cleared all viruses from the repiratory system; while the clearance process of the sleep-deprived group was incomplete, similar to mice without immunization at all.

The same researchers could also find a reduction in antibody levels in the blood of short-term sleep-deprived rats. In the long-term, they found marked physical changes in the animal, such as a negative energy balance, a loss of body weight, and a severe decline of thyroid hormone levels. They also found that sleep deprivation causes an “invasion of normally sterile body tissue by indigenous pathogenic bacteria.” In other words, the normally harmless bacteria of the intestines began to multiply aggressively in the sleep-deprived hosts and invaded the bloodstream and otherwise healthy body tissues.

As a consequence, the animals became susceptible to inflammations and infections. As another study demonstrated, most animals died after just over two weeks. This suggests that the immune system in sleep-deprived mice and rats is at least compromised.

Not even animal studies have, however, provided scientists with a clear picture of what exactly triggers the impairment of the immune system. So far, the few human studies produced conflicting results. While one study may determine a decrease in the level of natural killer cell activities, another study comes to the opposite conclusion.

Previous

Next

Index

and Health

Noise