In the recent study, it was revealed that lower dose of ‘acetylsalicylic acid’, also known as aspirin might reduce inflammatory responses caused by sleep deprivation. These findings will be presented at the SLEEP 2024 annual meeting.
The research indicates that prior administration of low-dose aspirin during periods of sleep restriction lessened pro-inflammatory responses compared to a placebo. Specifically, aspirin reduced the expression of interleukin-6, COX-1/COX-2 double positive cells in lipopolysaccharide-stimulated monocytes, and serum levels of C-reactive protein.
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Lead author Larissa Engert, a postdoctoral fellow in the department of neurology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and the division of sleep medicine at Harvard Medical School, highlighted the uniqueness of the study. “We investigated whether we can pharmacologically mitigate the inflammatory effects of sleep restriction using a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug known to impact specific inflammatory pathways disrupted by sleep disturbances,” Engert explained.
The study involved 46 healthy adults in a randomized, placebo-controlled crossover trial with three protocols: sleep restriction/aspirin, sleep restriction/placebo, and control sleep/placebo. Each protocol included a 14-day at-home phase followed by an 11-day in-hospital stay. Participants in the sleep restriction/aspirin condition took low-dose aspirin throughout both phases. The in-hospital stay began with two nights of eight-hour sleep opportunities. During sleep restriction, participants had five nights of only four hours of sleep, followed by three nights of recovery sleep. The control group maintained an eight-hour sleep opportunity throughout.
Engert noted that the aspirin not only reduced inflammatory pathway activity in sleep-restricted participants but also improved sleep metrics, such as decreased wake time after sleep onset and increased sleep efficiency during recovery.
“These results demonstrate that preemptive low-dose aspirin can blunt inflammatory pathways activated by sleep restriction,” Engert stated. “This could lead to the development of new therapies that target these pathways without the side effects of aspirin, like bleeding and stroke. Such treatments could complement behavioral sleep therapies to better prevent or manage inflammation in those experiencing sleep deprivation.”
