ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that the alterations in sleep that occur during the course of an acute infection serve to support the generation of fever. There is empirical evidence indicating that fever increases survival of the host. Fever and alterations in sleep are hallmarks of infectious disease. During acute infection, changes in sleep characteristically include an initial increase in non-rapid-eye-movement sleep that generally coincides with fever, followed by a period in which sleep is suppressed. The chapter reviews several aspects of the normal associations between sleep and thermoregulation, the costs and benefits of developing a fever, and the alterations in sleep that occur during fevers. There are two components of brain temperature (Tbr) changes that are tightly coupled to sleep/wake behavior: a circadian component and an ultradian component. The circadian component is composed of relatively large oscillations in Tbr that accompany rest/activity cycles with a period of approximately 24 hours.
