Sleep and inflammation

[rec head]

After a nice 10 day break I went back to work and it was the busiest since last summer. During the break my body was feeling pretty good. After 1 day of work which included cutting the tip off my thumb and barely sleeping I felt like shit the next day. Not just tired but my joints were pretty upset with me. There were no new aches but the old ones got pretty bad and all at once. Today after a good night of sleep I feel better but my knees are still much stiffer than they were and my tennis elbow is the worst it has been in weeks. I think this is the first time I have noticed the quick change from feeling good to painful joints after a bad night. So my question is this: Is there a connection between poor sleep and inflammation? My brief googling says yes but I think you can find search results saying that anything causes inflammation.

[ldamelio]

Absolutely yes. Lack of sleep causes release of all sorts of pro-inflammatory hormones and cytokines. If you search Pubmed (the NIH repository of peer-reviewed medical literature), you will find lots of details. I worked clinically as a trauma surgeon for 30 years, having one or two nights a week when I got no sleep at all or at most an hour or two. Hours were even worse as a resident and fellow in my 20's and early 30's. Headache, swollen legs, achy joints, etc. routine after a bad night. Tolerable in my 30's and 40's, got a lot harder in my 50's. Realized I was taking years off my life and took advantage of opportunities that presented themselves for alternate career path. Feel like a different person.