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Updated: Jul 14, 2026

Eye Tracking, Cortisol, and a Sleep vs. Wake Consolidation Delay: Combining Methods to Uncover an Interactive Effect of Sleep and Cortisol on Memory
Published on: June 18, 2014
[Immune outcomes of sleep disorders: the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis as a modulatory factor]
Beatriz Duarte Palma1, Paula Ayako Tiba, Ricardo Borges Machado
1Departamento de Psicobiologia, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
Objective:
To review the literature on the interaction between sleep and the immune system.
Method:
A search on Web of Science and Pubmed database including the keywords sleep, sleep deprivation, stress, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, immune system, and autoimmune diseases.
Results:
On Web of Science, 588 publications were retrieved; 61 references, more significant and closer to our objective, were used, including original articles and review papers.
Conclusion:
Sleep deprivation and immune system exert a bidirectional influence on each other. Since sleep deprivation is considered a stressor, inasmuch as it induces elevation of cortisol or corticosterone levels in humans and rodents, respectively, and given the well-known immunosuppressive effect of glucocorticoids, we propose that increased activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis is a major mediator of the immune alterations observed in patients with insomnia or in sleep deprived subjects.
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