Sleep Deprivation and Inflammation: The Unlikely Link

If you’ve ever had a migraine, you know how tedious they can be: a tense headache, sometimes with an aura, often making you call out of work to sit in a dark room all day and rest. 

Migraines can be triggered by lack of sleep (whether that be from stress or another reason) and can cause dizziness and balance issues even without a headache, which is called an atypical migraine. If you don’t get enough sleep, your memory, mood, and energy can start to suffer as a result.  

If you’re sleeping poorly or getting no sleep at all, you’re at risk for far more worrying conditions than just falling asleep at your desk. 

Sleep deprivation can also cause serious inflammation issues; not getting enough sleep has been shown to increase inflammatory molecules, such as cytokines, C-reactive protein, interleukin-6, and others.  

Inflammation is the body’s natural response to injury or disease and works as an effective defense mechanism to help temporarily protect the body from harm. However, if this defense response doesn’t alleviate, your body might be at risk for the development of diabetes, cancer, stroke, heart disease, or Alzheimer’s disease. 

How Does Sleep Deprivation Cause Inflammation? 

There are a few theories for how lack of sleep causes inflammation. One theory noted that blood vessels relax during sleep, so when sleep is restricted, your blood pressure doesn’t decline as it must for apt relaxation, triggering cells in blood vessel walls to activate inflammation responses. 

Another theory posited that lack of sleep negatively affects the “housecleaning” processes of the brain. The glymphatic system (very different from the lymphatic system) takes care of the brain by cleaning out brain-cell damage proteins called beta-amyloids while you sleep, which can also lead to inflammation. 

When you don’t get good enough sleep to allow this process to work its way through your brain, the beta-amyloid buildup in your frontal lobe will start to further affect your sleep, causing non-REM slow-wave sleep – with even worse rest, you’ll have more trouble recalling and consolidating memories. Even just one night of lost sleep can keep your beta-amyloid levels higher than usual. 

While one night of bad sleep can be rectified easily, a pattern of sleep loss will lead to decreases in the size, structure, and function of the thalamus and hippocampus, which are integral parts of the brain to help ward off the first stages of Alzheimer’s disease. 

If you’re struggling to get a good night’s rest due to stress, it’s crucial that you address what’s keeping you up at night to avoid the negative health effects associated with sleep deprivation. 

Whether that’s by getting to the root of your stress trigger and alleviating it or learning techniques to get to sleep easier and quicker, sleeping better will help lessen headaches, improve your balance, and help your brain clear out the beta-amyloids that can lead to inflammation. 

If you have any questions about your health or would like some advice on your unique situation, please feel free to request a callback or call us at (310) 909-0180, and we’ll help in any way we can.