Abstract

Significance It is widely presumed that there is a relationship between sleep and the gut microbiome because both sleep restriction and dysbiosis of the gut microbiome are associated with metabolic diseases such as obesity and diabetes. Here, we report sleep restriction over several consecutive days does not overtly influence the composition of the microbiome of either rats or humans, despite both species showing other changes associated with sleep loss. These analyses suggest that sleep loss and microbial dysbiosis have independent effects on the development of metabolic diseases.