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Why we sleep remains somewhat mysterious. Studying what happens when sleep is impaired or absent is a key method to elucidate what sleep does for the brain and body (including the gut). Seemingly unrelated, what causes or exacerbates inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is unclear. Now, researchers have tackled both issues at once by investigating whether sleep disruption leads to worsening colitis. The study stems from previous work suggesting that patients with IBD frequently report having sleep problems and that sleep problems might be a marker of stress and immune dysregulation, or even a direct contributor to them. The researchers induced colitis in mice and then randomized the mice to undergo acute sleep deprivation, chronic intermittent …