Although the biological function of sleep remains uncertain, the consequences of sleep deprivation are well-described and are reported to be detrimental to cognitive function and affective well-being. Sleep deprivation also is strongly associated with elevated risk factors for cardiovascular disease. We used a mouse model of cardiac arrest/cardiopulmonary resuscitation to test the hypothesis that acute sleep deprivation would exacerbate neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration after global ischemia. The resulting data led to a rejection of our hypothesis that sleep deprivation is necessarily detrimental. Indeed, acute sleep deprivation (ASD) was associated with a reduction in ischemia-induced interleukin 1beta (IL-1beta) gene expression and attenuation of neuronal damage in the hippocampus. Further, sleep deprivation increased gene expression of two anti-inflammatory cytokines, IL-6 and IL-10 that are associated with improved ischemic outcome. To determine whether the anti-inflammatory properties of ASD were specific to ischemia, mice were treated systemically with lipopolysaccharide (LPS), a potent inflammogen. Acute sleep deprivation attenuated the central and peripheral increase in tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNFalpha) and increased IL-10 expression. Together, the ischemia and LPS data suggest that, ASD produces an anti-inflammatory bias that could be exploited to improve medical procedures that are compromised by inflammation.