Sleep Deprivation Is Not Only Unpleasant but Also Harmful

Sleep deprivation makes us tired, but is it physically harmful? These researchers examined brain changes in mice that were sleeping normally, had woken spontaneously, had experienced 8 hours of acute sleep deprivation (ASD), or had undergone 4.5 days of chronic sleep restriction by 70% (CSR).

Compared with normal sleep and waking, both ASD and CSR were associated with increased phagocytic events in large synapses by cortical astrocytes. Only CSR triggered phagocytosis by microglia. Increased phagocytosis by microglia occurred in the absence of inflammation in the central nervous system, even though an element of the complement system (C3) was activated.