Britse onderzoekers controleerden het bloed van 26 proefpersonen na een periode van goed slapen (minstens 10u per nacht). Vervolgens werden de proefpersonen een week op een regime van 6 uur slaap per nacht gezet. Na deze week bleken 700 genen serieus aangetast. Professor Colin Smith stelt hierover:  “There was quite a dramatic change in activity in many different kinds of genes. Areas such as the immune system and how the body responds to damage and stress were affected. Clearly sleep is critical to rebuilding the body and maintaining a functional state, all kinds of damage appear to occur – hinting at what may lead to ill health. If we can’t actually replenish and replace new cells, then that’s going to lead to degenerative diseases.” (bron)

Uit het oorspronkelijk artikel:

Insufficient sleep and circadian rhythm disruption are associated with negative health outcomes, but the mechanisms involved remain largely unexplored. We show that one wk of insufficient sleep alters gene expression in human blood cells, reduces the amplitude of circadian rhythms in gene expression, and intensifies the effects of subsequent acute total sleep loss on gene expression. The affected genes are involved in chromatin remodeling, regulation of gene expression, and immune and stress responses. The data imply molecular mechanisms mediating the effects of sleep loss on health and highlight the interrelationships between sleep homeostasis, circadian rhythmicity, and metabolism.