Can lack of sleep actually make your IBD flare?

Sleep. That wonderful thing that I used to know before I was a mother! I am one of those people who LOVE sleep- anything less than eight hours and I really wasn’t happy about it! I’ve slept through thunderstorms, turbulence and am not picky about where I rest my head! What’s more, I’ve really felt the difference in my IBD symptoms if I was experiencing things like jet lag or a hectic weekend so I did wonder when I was pregnant: will sleep make my IBD flare?

Disclaimer: This post contains a paid advertorial for Bed Guru

As I think I mentioned in Jude’s birth story, the first few weeks and even months of parenthood were not kind to my digestion. There were many factors at play really: hormones, hospital food, the fact my body had birthed a human and didn’t now know what the hell was going on. Oh, and the fact I seemed to be surviving on two hours sleep a night.

So when I was asked by Bed Guru to write about sleep tips, I thought: ‘I don’t have any unless they’re ‘give your baby to somebody else and get into bed’. So instead, I thought I’d take the time to actually research more about sleep, how it works, how it affects your digestion and how it links to IBD. Let’s learn more about sleep and IBD…

Fact 1: Your sleep is pretty crap if you have Crohn’s… like all the time

When I read this, I was like ‘what?’; I would sleep if my baby would! But actually, sleep disturbances can be linked to Inflammatory Bowel Disease, EVEN if we’re lucky enough to be in remission! A study found that 50% of people with Crohn’s Disease reported having disturbed sleep when they were in remission and this went up to 78% when flaring.’ What’s more, those that did have poor sleep in remission, seemed to be more likely to flare up down the line. (MORE HERE)

Why does sleep get affected by IBD?

The most obvious one would be that when we are flaring, we might be dashing to the loo in the middle of the night; whilst medication like steroids could leave us wide awake counting sheep at 3 am. If we’re unwell, we might struggle with fatigue which can mess up our sleep patterns.

However, it could also be to do with our inflammatory markers. The study states that actually TNF (an inflammatory cytokine that ‘anti-TNF’ biologics like Humira actually suppress) suppresses REM sleep and changes our sleep pattern. So if this is elevated, and it might be even in remission, then that might be why our sleep is altered.

Finally, another reason could be the link between living with IBD and mental health-more about this in my ‘why all IBD patients should be offered counselling’ blog post.

Why does sleep cause Crohn’s to flare?

It works both ways. Those who were in remission of Crohn’s but still had sleep disturbance (perhaps for completely unrelated reasons like shift work or too many late nights), were twice as likely to flare up after six months. Weirdly, whilst those with Ulcerative Colitis reported sleep disturbances, it didn’t seem to be linked to an increased flare risk. This is strange to me because, illness or not, I think we’d all agree that sleep contributes to our overall wellbeing.

Sleep deprivation is associated with IL-6; which plays an important role in immune and inflammation. Our natural killer cells are also activated when we don’t sleep.

Is this the same for other conditions like IBS?

It’s not just about IBD. There is also a link between our sleep and general digestion and lots of studies have found those with IBS also seem to struggle with sleep more than healthy controls. There seems to be a connection between our gut and our pillows; for example, one study found that increasing melatonin (a hormone we need for sleep which is often supplemented for those who struggle with sleep) actually decreased stomach pain.

I’d love to hear your experiences of sleep and IBD: do you find it is often linked?