Neuroinflammation, sleep, and autoimmune disease

Sleep occurs globally, regionally, and locally and is regulated by cellular and molecular mechanism and neuronal circuits. Inflammatory mechanisms have a central role in regulating normal homeostatic sleep and sleep in pathologies associated with altered inflammatory states such as often occurs with autoimmune diseases. Both sleep and inflammatory pathways are highly conserved between species indicating the physiological importance of inflammation and sleep. Sleep and inflammation are important for many functions including cognition, brain waste clearance, immune function, vigilance, development, psychological condition, energy conservation, and modulation of brain vascular hemodynamics. Herein, we describe the role of inflammation in sleep in order to understand the sleep disturbances in conditions of dysregulated inflammation such as autoimmune diseases.