Sleep Disturbance, Sleep Duration, and Inflammation: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Cohort Studies and Experimental Sleep Deprivation

Irwin MR, Olmstead R, Carroll JE · Biological Psychiatry

Sleep disturbance was associated with higher CRP (ES 0.12) and IL-6 (ES 0.20); long sleep also associated with inflammation; effects are real but small — a systemic-inflammation pathway, not joint-specific evidence.

Population

>50,000 participants across 72 cohort and experimental studies

Intervention

Sleep disturbance / extreme sleep durations

Comparator

Normal sleep

Limitations

Small pooled effect sizes; mostly observational; no cartilage or joint-structure outcomes anywhere in the literature pool.