Lack of sleep linked to diabetes - January 02, 2008
All those who have been staying up late at New Year parties better watch out: not getting enough shut-eye could lead to diabetes. Researchers from the University of Chicago found that disturbing the ‘slow wave sleep’ – deep sleep in layman’s terms – of healthy young adults for three nights made them less sensitive to insulin.
This resulted in reduced tolerance of glucose and increased risk of type 2 diabetes, they report in PNAS (study abstract should appear here later).
“Previous studies from our lab have demonstrated many connections between chronic, partial sleep deprivation, changes in appetite, metabolic abnormalities, obesity, and diabetes risk. These results solidify those links and add a new wrinkle: the role of poor sleep quality,” says Eve Van Cauter, one of the study authors (press release).
The finding comes on the heels of another study published last month that found people who reported sleeping for five hours or less nightly were more likely to have diabetes than those who typically got seven hours kip. Sleepy-heads who stay in bed too long were also at risk – nine or more hours was also linked to diabetes (press release).
Van Cauter and colleagues took four women and five men and ruined their sleep by playing noise at them through speakers that was loud enough to disturb, but not quite loud enough to wake them. The subjects were found to be 25% less sensitive to insulin after three nights of this.
“These findings demonstrate a clear role for SWS in the maintenance of normal glucose homeostasis. Furthermore, our data suggest that reduced sleep quality with low levels of SWS, as occurs in aging and in many obese individuals, may contribute to increase the risk of type 2 diabetes,” the paper concludes.
News coverage
Chicago Sun Times
BBC
Daily Telegraph (UK)
AP
The Australian
Image: Alamy
Comments
Hi there,
Lack of sleep can result in several serious medical conditions such as:
Attention deficit disorder
Accidental injuries
Diabetes
Distraction of bed partner’s sleep quality
Fetal and infancy development retardation
Heart attack
Heart failure
High blood pressure
Mental destructions
Over weight
Psychiatric disorders like mood and depression disorders
Stroke
Posted by: Sleep Disorders Guide | January 3, 2008 05:04 AM
Wow,
I never knew that lack of sleep could do such a thing such as the one's listed. I myself like to stay up at night pretty late around 12-2P.M. Thank you so much for listing this. I was so wowed that i had to print my own copy! God Bless...and get some sleep! :)
Posted by: Flicka Reed | January 7, 2008 11:50 PM