Introduction:
While in today's scenario and fast-moving world, sleep has been one of the most underrated things that is often disregarded, the impact it has on one’s body is humongous. Sleep is one overall factor that can potentially harm each organ individually. While sleep is one phenomenon that is indicated to provide rest to the body, the concept of sleep here, also known as the circadian rhythm or the biological clock regulates the body’s functions systematically towards maintaining the overall health of the body. Sleep inadequacy, in turn, shows deleterious effects on the body, changing its course of functioning completely. Each system shows its drawbacks in function when seen. Similarly, lack of sleep and its impact on blood cells is a debatable topic and one that should be watched out for as the complications often remain silent for longer periods, leading to a sudden deterioration in health.
How Does the Immune System Work?
The body’s immune system is the first-line defense mechanism of the body. In case of any infection or injury, the cells from the immune system rush to the site mediated by the inflammatory regulators of the body to induce repair and healing. The immune system can be of different types, namely innate immunity (the body’s immunity by birth) and acquired immunity (immunity developed by the body on exposure to different lifestyles). The organs that serve as immune systems in the body are the tonsils, thymus, spleen, bone marrow, skin, and mucous membrane.
What Are the Components of Blood?
Blood, on the whole, is one structure that runs through all the systems of the body. The components that cohesively combine to form blood are white blood cells, red blood cells, plasma, and platelets. Here, the white blood cells cohesively include a group of diverse cells that act as the defense cells of the body. The red blood cells carry oxygen and iron to different parts of the body. Platelets are the clotting cells of the body that send clotting factors to arrest bleeding at the site of injury.
What Is the Impact of Sleep on Blood Cells?
Although the extent of the holistic impact of sleep on the blood cells is under continuous study, here are some of the effects it has on the blood cells.
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Red Blood Cells: The red blood cells of the body are made up of heme and oxygen, and the level of oxygen in the red blood cell has a great impact on the body as these red blood cells carry oxygen to individual organs. And the lack of oxygen may result in organ fatigue. Sleep inadequacy leads to a disruption in the oxygen-carrying potential of the blood cells. This is because the hormone that is responsible for the production of red blood cells called erythropoietin and its functions are disturbed as a negative impact due to lack of sleep. The iron levels also become compromised due to the erythropoietin disturbance, which eventually leads to anemia.
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White Blood Cells: With proper sleep, there is a regulated release of cytokines, where cytokines are enzymes that play an important role in regulating the body’s immune system. Lack of sleep leads to a disruption in these enzymes, which in turn compromise the body’s immune system to combat any infection entering the body. Lack of sleep also increases blood cortisol levels, which is a stress hormone. This increase in stress hormones compromises the body’s immune system by suppressing the activity of the white blood cells. While sleep is a healing and reparative process of the body, it also helps in the repair and regeneration of the blood cells. Here sleep inadequacy retards the regeneration of the white blood cells compromising its functions.
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Immune System: The immune system is one of the most important systems of the body that plays a very important role in healthy living. The immune system is essential for the body to fight against any infection affecting it or to fix any illness, be it chronic or acute. Sleep has a direct impact on the body’s immune system, where the amount of sleep is directly proportional to the level of the body's immunity. Hence, while inadequate sleep can throw the body’s immune system off guard, be it short-term or long-term, a balanced sleep is also proven to show a greater functioning immune system.
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Platelets: A good amount of sleep leads to an increased and normally functioning platelet, where a deprived sleep pattern shows a disruption in the body’s platelet levels. Although the reason for this phenomenon is under study, there are visible disturbances seen. Sleep inadequacy shows a disruption in the pattern and function of the platelets, whereas, in conditions including insomnia or sleep apnea, there is a random, uncoordinated increased proliferation of the platelets that leads to increased risk of clot formation which in turn results in life-threatening complications like embolism or thrombosis.
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Stress Hormones: Be it chronic or acute inadequacy of sleep, it always has an impact on the stress hormones. Inadequate sleep leads to an increase in the level of the stress hormone cortisol, which affects the functioning of the white blood cells, thus compromising the body’s immunity.
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Bone Marrow: Lack of sleep leads to a sluggish functioning bone marrow, where the primary function of the bone marrow is to show the production of pluripotent blood cells. Hence, lack of sleep eventually leads to a compromise in the functioning of the bone marrow to produce efficient blood cells.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, this article gives an elaborative overview of the impact of sleep exclusively on the blood cells. In today's scenario, one takes things as simple as sleep for granted without understanding the potentially harmful effects that one directly or indirectly imposes on the body. Hence, a conscious effort should be made by everyone to achieve a certain amount of sleep. This can be achieved by mindfully following certain lifestyle changes like consuming healthy foods, practicing walking or physical exercises, meditation, or listening to calming music that helps to calm one’s mind, reducing the stress hormones, eventually resulting in good sleep habits. So with this knowledge, achieving proper sleep with an average of eight to ten hours per day, all the complications, especially the impact of sleep on blood cells, can be reversed by replenishing both the cells and organs with adequacy in oxygen levels.
