In the last twenty years we have realized that the immune system synthesizes a class of peptides, termed cytokines, that play a central role in alerting the brain to ongoing inflammation in peripheral tissues. Among the brain's responses to proinflammatory cytokines, or agents that induce these cytokines, are certain alterations in sleep profiles. Characteristically there is an increase in non-rapid eye movement sleep (NREMS), and NREMS intensity is often accompanied by a decrease in rapid eye movement sleep (REMS). Cytokines appear to play a role in normal sleep regulation; during pathology, higher levels of cytokines amplify the physiological cytokine sleep mechanisms. In this review we summarize the extensive literature on the roles of interleukin-1 (IL-1) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) in sleep regulation, and their interactions with the neuropeptides growth hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH) and corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH). We reach the tentative conclusion that the sleep-promoting actions of IL-1 and GHRH are mediated via anterior hypothalamic neurons that are receptive to these substances. It also seems likely that TNF-alpha and CRH also influence these neurons. In addition, we discuss an array of research issues raised by these studies that remain to be resolved.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 3. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 08 January 2023.
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#8,167,415
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#4,170
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#42,674
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Outputs of similar age from Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
#556
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Altmetric has tracked 24,484,013 research outputs across all sources so far. This one is in the 44th percentile – i.e., 44% of other outputs scored the same or lower than it.
So far Altmetric has tracked 11,806 research outputs from this source. They typically receive more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 8.1. This one is in the 16th percentile – i.e., 16% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
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