Research
Hormonal
Specific cytokines (IL-1, TNF, IFN) produced during the immune response act on the brain to increase non-REM sleep duration, demonstrating a bidirectional communication between the immune system and sleep regulation.
Your immune system uses chemical signals (cytokines) to tell your brain to sleep more when you are sick. This is a biological command to prioritize healing over other activities.
StrongSupportsHIGH confidence
certain cytokines affect sleep, such as IL-1, which, when administered intracerebroventricularly into rabbits and rats, increases the duration of non-REM sleep. This effect is abolished when IL-1 antagonists are given [29–31]. Administration of the cytokines TNF- and IFN- has the same effect as IL-1 [32–34].
Why this rating
Strong mechanistic evidence from animal studies showing direct causal links between cytokine administration and sleep changes.
Source
The Bidirectional Relationship between Sleep and Immunity against Infections
Elizabeth Ibarra‐Coronado et al. · Journal of Immunology Research · 2015
DOI 10.1155/2015/678164
narrative_reviewCited 234×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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- Sleep deprivation and reduced sleep duration weaken the immune response, increasing susceptibility to viral, bacterial, and parasitic infections through mechanisms such as impaired lymphocyte proliferation and altered cytokine levels.Good
- Infection and immune response actively alter sleep patterns, typically increasing slow-wave sleep (SWS) and decreasing REM sleep, which may be an adaptive mechanism to conserve energy for the immune response.Good
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