Given the high incidence of Sleep Apnoea amongst XXY’s administering exogenous Testosterone, research of this nature would seem to indicate a far greater impact than insomnia alone.

Most people have at some point echoed Macbeth’s complaint about the loss of “sleep that knits up the ravelled sleeve of care”. Sleep disorders, such as obstructive sleep apnoea (when breathing temporarily stops, causing both sleep disruption and lack of oxygen in the blood) and sleep deprivation, have been associated with an increased risk of atherosclerosis and its harmful cardiovascular effects. Atherosclerosis is characterized by the formation of ‘plaques’ in arteries, as white blood cells enter the artery wall, take up cholesterol and other substances from the blood and trigger an inflammatory response. However, the mechanisms linking sleep disruption and atherosclerosis have been largely unknown. Writing in Nature, McAlpine et al. show that persistent sleep disruption causes the brain to signal the bone marrow to increase the production of white blood cells.

Full article available at nature.com