Sleep-deprived mice has accelerated atherosclerosis
1. Sleep Protects Your Arteries
Everyone knows getting enough sleep is important for your health. Researchers have now shown that getting enough sleep can protect you from developing cardiovascular disease.
2. Lack of Sleep Can Lead to Atherosclerosis
Studies have already shown that insufficient sleep can lead you to develop serious health problems, including cardiovascular disease. Atherosclerosis is caused by buildup of plaques in your arteries. Overtime, these plaques can clog your arteries, leading to heart attacks, strokes and other cardiovascular diseases.
3. More Inflammatory Cells from Lack of Sleep
Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital has now found that getting enough sleep helps protect you from atherosclerosis. They found that sleep helps regulate the production of inflammatory cells in the bone marrow. Sleep disruption was found to interfere with the control of inflammatory cell production, leading to more inflammation and cardiovascular disease.
In other words, if you don’t get enough sleep, your body goes out of balance and starts producing more inflammatory cells, which cause inflammation and lead to cardiovascular disease.
4. Hypocretin Controls Inflammatory Cell Production
In addition, the researchers found a hormone in the brain called hypocretin which control wakefulness. It turns out that hypocretin also controls production of inflammatory white blood cells from the bone marrow. It seems lack of sleep causes a drop in hypocretin, which then leads to increased production of inflammatory white blood cells. This increases the risk of cardiovascular disease.
5. Sleep-Deprived Genetic Mice
Mice which were genetically programmed to develop atheroslcerosis were used in the experiments. One group of mice were allowed to sleep normally and another group were subjected to repeated interruptions, similar to people who are frequently interrupted by noise or discomfort during sleep.
The sleep-deprived mice had almost double the stem cells that give rise to the inflammatory white blood cells. Also, the hormone hypocretin were significantly reduced in the sleep-deprived mice. In short, sleep deprivation in the mice caused them to have lower levels of hypocretin, which then led to more white blood cells being produced. The final result was accelerated atherosclerosis in the sleep-deprived mice.
6. Get Enough Sleep
What does this mean for you? Well, it’s simple. Just get enough sleep. The average adult should get 7 to 8 hours of sleep each night. If you have kids or teenagers, make sure they get 8 to 10 hours of sleep. Simply, sleep helps protect you against the risk of cardiovascular disease. Happy zzzs!
Science Converse Ice Breaker
Did you know lack of sleep can increase your risk of cardiovascular disease?
- Researchers found mice that were sleep-deprived showed increased atherosclerosis (plaque buildup in the arteries)
- The hormone in the brain called hypocretin controls wakefulness, but also control production of white blood cells in the bone marrow
- Sleep-deprived mice had much lower levels of hypocretin
- With less hypocretin to control while blood cell production, more white blood cells were produced, causing more inflammation and increased atherosclerosis
- The take home message is get enough sleep. It’s healthy for you.
