You’ve probably thought of insomnia as a minor annoyance that just leaves you tired and less productive the next day.
But according to a new study, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Getting poor sleep also disrupts healthy immune function—and that disruption can happen as fast as one night of restlessness!
According to the researchers, when you toss and turn all night, signals are sent to the immune system which, in turn, causes significant changes in specialized immune cells called monocytes.
These altered cells then appear to drive widespread inflammation—the same type of inflammation associated with obesity and numerous chronic diseases.
If these immune cells continue to transform in the bloodstream, chronic inflammation occurs.
Study details
The research was conducted by scientists at Kuwait’s Dasman Diabetes Institute, and the findings were published in The Journal of Immunology in February 2025.
The researchers recruited 237 healthy adults who were willing to wear sleep tracking devices for seven days. Since the researchers were also examining how sleep quality was affected by a person’s weight, the participants were chosen across a broad spectrum of body weights.
Participants were fitted with a wearable device named ActiGraph GT3X. The ActiGraph is designed to provide objective data on sleep efficiency, duration and disruptions. At the same time, blood samples were drawn to track differences in immune cell populations and inflammatory markers throughout the study period.
The researchers first observed that obese participants demonstrated significantly lower sleep quality compared to their lean counterparts. This reduced sleep quality also resulted in elevated levels of inflammatory markers.
This observation—unhealthy weight causing unhealthy sleep patterns—is certainly not a new discovery; however, in this study the researchers also learned that poor sleep caused elevated inflammation markers regardless of a person’s weight.
This demonstrates that even lean, healthy individuals face inflammatory consequences from poor sleep.
Tracking monocytes
The primary key used in the study was monocyte tracking. Monocytes are a type of leukocyte or white blood cell. They are the largest type of leukocyte present in human blood.
According to the researchers, one of the best ways to document inflammation is to observe differences in these monocytes.
A decreased level of “classical” monocytes (which primarily perform routine surveillance) accompanied by increased levels of “nonclassical” monocytes (cells known to secrete inflammatory compounds) indicates an inflammatory situation.
The researchers discovered that poor sleep quality correlated with increased nonclassical monocytes regardless of body weight.
Even lean participants who experienced sleep disruption showed elevated nonclassical monocytes levels. This key finding demonstrates that while overweight people may have inferior sleep quality in general, a period of disrupted sleep can trigger inflammatory responses regardless of whether a person has a healthy weight or not.
To further investigate this finding, the researchers conducted an additional controlled experiment with five lean, healthy individuals who underwent 24 hours of complete sleep deprivation.
The results fully corroborated the earlier finding: after just one night without sleep, participants showed significant increases in inflammatory nonclassical monocytes.
With sleep, both quality and quantity matter
For most adults, the National Sleep Foundation recommends seven to nine hours of sleep per night. Participants in the current study were in line with this recommendation—averaging approximately 7.8 hours of sleep each night. However, importantly, the research established that sleep quality matters as much as quantity.
According to the observations, any sleep disruptions, periods of awakening, and what the researchers classified as “reduced sleep efficiency” all appeared to influence immune function—even when total sleep duration was in line with recommendations.
The good news
There was one positive aspect to the study. The researchers discovered that when disruptions of sleep were reversed the participants’ inflammation markers were restored fairly quickly—demonstrating the body’s ability to recover from short-term sleep disruption.
This positive finding must be tempered with the fact that poor sleep often accompanies other immune-stressing factors such as an injury, work stress, exposure to pollution and other toxins, and even prescription medication.
In short, a poor night’s sleep shouldn’t be taken lightly. It may take more than one good night’s sleep to restore immune function. Exercise, sunshine, high-antioxidant foods, deep breathing and nutritional supplements are all steps that can be taken to help bring the immune system back into balance.
– – –
The Exposure Protection Pak from Optimal Health Systems is the go-to product for jump-starting an immune system that is under threat. Whether you’ve been exposed to Covid or the flu, feel weakened from stress, or are suffering bouts of insomnia, the Exposure Protection Pak provides all the nutrients your body needs to optimize your immune system. Learn more by clicking the banner ad on this page.
– – –
Sources: The Journal of Immunology, JustAPedia (monocytes).