How Sleep Affects Cancer
Poor Sleep Alters Hormones That Influence Cancer Cells
Oct. 1, 2003 -- A new study shows that how well you sleep may determine how well your body fights cancer -- and may help explain how mental well-being plays into cancer recovery and progression.
After analyzing previous studies, Stanford University psychiatrist David Spiegel, MD, and colleague Sandra Sephton, MD, say that sleep problems alter the balance of at least two hormones that influence cancer cells.
Sleep, Hormones, and Cancer
One is cortisol, which helps to regulate immune system activity -- including the release of certain "natural killer" cells that help the body battle cancer. Cortisol levels typically peak at dawn, after hours of sleep, and decline throughout the day.
Spiegel tells WebMD that night shift workers, who have higher rates of breast cancer than women who sleep normal hours, are more likely to have a "shifted cortisol rhythm," in which their cortisol levels peak in the afternoon. At least two studies show those women typically die earlier from breast cancer.
"We also found that people who wake up repeatedly during the night are also more likely to have abnormal cortisol patterns," he says.
Cortisol is the so-called "stress" hormone triggered, along with others, during times of anxiety and may play a role in the development and worsening of cancer and other conditions.
The other hormone affected by sleep is melatonin. Produced by the brain during sleep, melatonin may have antioxidant properties that help prevent damage to cells that can lead to cancer.
In addition, melatonin lowers estrogen production from the ovaries. Thus, a lack of sleep leads to too little melatonin. This series of events may expose women to high levels of estrogen and may increase the risk of breast cancer.
Spiegel says that women shift workers who are up all night produce less melatonin.
"There's a definite hormonal pattern that is affected by sleep that in itself, can predict a more rapid progression of cancer," he tells WebMD.
"Getting a good night's sleep is fairly simple, if you allow yourself to do it. The big problem for cancer patients is they take too much on themselves and don't give enough time to help their bodies cope with the illness. They're worried about burdening their families and fulfilling their usual obligations."
And that's the real message of his study, in the October issue of Brain,Behavior and Immunity. Itindicates the importance of good sleep as one of several mind-body factors that might influence cancer outcome.