title: Resilience of the immune system in healthy young students to 30-hour sleep deprivation with psychological stress.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Young adults often encounter sleep deprivation and stressful events. Both have been separately reported to modulate immunity, and occasionally they occur simultaneously. We assessed the combined effects of these conditions on immune competence in healthy students.
  
  
  METHODS
  Twenty-three participants (mean age 24 years; SD 1.86; 14 females) were exposed to 30 h of sleep deprivation during which they conducted physiological, social and cognitive tasks. The control group consisted of 18 participants (mean age 23.67 years; SD 1.46; 11 females). All participants underwent cognitive and psychological evaluations at 10:00 AM, followed by blood and saliva collection, 3 days before sleep deprivation induction and on the morning following it. Immune/endocrine measures included blood counts of lymphocytes, granulocytes, monocytes and natural killer (NK) cells; levels of several cell surface markers; NK cytotoxicity; plasma levels of interleukin (IL)-6, IL-10, dehydroepiandrosterone and neuropeptide Y, and plasma and salivary cortisol levels.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Although the experimental protocol significantly elevated state anxiety and psychological dissociation levels, no effects were evident in any of the immunological/endocrine indices. In contrast, expected sex differences in immune measures were found, including significantly higher NK cytotoxicity and monocyte counts in males, validating the integrity of the measurements.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The findings suggest resilience of the immune system to a combined sleep deprivation and stressful exposure in young adults, while previous studies reported immune perturbations following either of these conditions separately. These apparent contradictions might reflect differences in the study design or in the methodology used for immunological assessments, including the time of sample collection, the combination of sleep deprivation with stress and our in vivo assessment of cytokine levels.
authors: School of Psychological Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Israel.
authors: Pini
authors: P
authors: Matzner
authors: Ofir
authors: O
authors: Hazut
authors: Reut
authors: R
authors: Naim
authors: Lee
authors: L
authors: Shaashua
authors: Liat
authors: L
authors: Sorski
authors: Ben
authors: B
authors: Levi
authors: Avi
authors: A
authors: Sadeh
authors: Ilan
authors: I
authors: Wald
authors: Yair
authors: Y
authors: Bar-Haim
authors: Shamgar
authors: S
authors: Ben-Eliyahu
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007107:Immune System / Q000166:cytology / Q000276:immunology; D020014:K562 Cells; D007694:Killer Cells, Natural / Q000276:immunology; D007958:Leukocyte Count / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D012892:Sleep Deprivation / Q000276:immunology* / Q000523:psychology*; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000276:immunology* / Q000523:psychology*; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult