IL6 and atrial fibrillation: Specifically, each one-hour reduction in sleep duration was associated with a 17% greater risk of prevalent AF and a 9% greater risk of incident AF [1] Human studies of total or partial sleep deprivation (SD) for a short period (less than 7 days) showed that SD activates the transcription of nuclear factor-κB in peripheral blood mononuclear cells and increases the level of circulatory proinflammatory cytokines, such as interleukin-6, tumor necrosis factor-α, interferon-γ, and C-reactive protein.