The association between interleukin-6, sleep, and demographic characteristics.
We examined the relationship between the pro-inflammatory cytokine IL-6 and sleep architecture in 70 healthy men and women. Blood was drawn in the early morning for assessment of IL-6 followed by nocturnal sleep monitoring with polysomnography. Sleep records were scored for sleep stages using standard criteria. Morning IL-6 levels were positively correlated with REM latency after sleep onset [rho = .31, p = .01], percent (%) stage 1 sleep [rho = .23, p = .053], % wake after sleep onset (WASO) [rho = .29, p<.05]. IL-6 levels were negatively correlated with sleep efficiency [rho = -.36, p<.01] and slow wave sleep (SWS) [rho = -.26, p<.05]. After controlling for demographic variables including race, gender, age, and BMI, multiple hierarchical regression analyses revealed that morning IL-6 levels accounted for a significant portion of the variance of REM latency (p<.01), sleep efficiency (p<.01), and % WASO (p = .01). IL-6 was no longer associated with % stage 1 sleep, SWS, and total sleep time after controlling for the demographic characteristics. These findings suggest that the inflammatory marker IL-6 is associated with sleep quality and that certain individual characteristics such as race, gender, and age modify that relationship. Higher IL-6 levels were associated with lower quality of sleep among healthy asymptomatic men and women.
Hong
Suzi
S
Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, USA. s1hong@ucsd.edu
Mills
Paul J
PJ
Loredo
Jose S
JS
Adler
Karen A
KA
Dimsdale
Joel E
JE
D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American; D000367:Age Factors; D015992:Body Mass Index; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015850:Interleukin-6 / Q000097:blood* / Q000276:immunology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017286:Polysomnography; D012737:Sex Factors; D012894:Sleep Stages / Q000276:immunology*; D044465:White People
D015850:Interleukin-6