Re: What is the association between sleep and wound healing?

Deb,

The association of sleep (or lack there of) and wound healing, is most likely multi-faceted. Certainly, as you've indicated, reducing the amount of sleep will increase the amount of stress, which has been shown to reduce immunological function of the human body.

Another, likely inter-twined mechanism, is that the body uses the opportunity of sleep and the decrease in the body's energy demands during sleep to "catch-up" on wound healing and other tissue repair. Because while we sleep the energy demands are decreased for normal metabolism, the body can use this energy for other purposes, namely repair of damaged tissue. So by increasing the amount of time we are awake, we also increase the amount of engery our body needs to function. This effectively decreases the amount of energy (and nutrients) available for tissue repair. This is true of not only injuries or wounds but also of the every day "wear-n-tear" on most all the tissues of the body.

Hope this helps!

Steve