The impact of experimentally-induced insomnia-like symptoms on interleukin-6 and lymphocyte subsets

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Sleep is important for effective immune functions. Sleep disturbances like insomnia are highly prevalent in modern society and are associated with impaired health status and changes in immune parameters. However, it is not known whether the reported immune changes in patients with insomnia are indeed caused by the disturbed sleep patterns. Experimental studies addressing the impact of sleep disruptions on immune functions mostly employ total sleep deprivation or sleep restriction to a couple of hours per night, which does not adequately mimic sleep patterns typical for insomnia. In the outlined project, we aim to analyze the impact of experimentally-induced insomnia-like symptoms in healthy humans on immune parameters by employing a 17-day in-hospital sleep disruption protocol that models insomnia symptoms. The protocol includes 9 nights with delayed sleep onset, frequent nocturnal awakenings and early morning awakening, which is typical for patients with insomnia, and is designed as within-subject study also comprising an in-hospital control arm with undisturbed sleep. With this model, we want to explore whether immune changes seen during insomnia, like increases in interleukin-6 levels and reductions in lymphocyte numbers, are indeed causally related to the disrupted sleep patterns. In addition, the applied protocol includes several cycles of disrupted sleep and sleep recovery nights to analyze the time course of the immune changes and determine whether the immune system is able to adapt to repeated perturbations. This will give further insights into the potential plasticity of biological systems to recurrent challenges.