Poor sleep and diabetes risk

According to researchers at the University of Chicago, diabetes and poor sleep quality may be more closely linked than we thought.

The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, indicates that the quality of sleep and the amount of deep sleep a person gets each night may be related to reduced glucose tolerance.

In the study, nine otherwise healthy young adults slept undisturbed in the lab for two nights, and then returned to the lab for three nights of interrupted sleep. When subjects’ brain waves indicated they were falling into deep sleep (or “slow-wave sleep”), researchers used sounds to disturb their deep sleep without really waking them up. Researchers were able to reduce deep sleep time by 90 percent.

Sound unpleasant? Because they were never fully roused, most participants in the study didn’t know they were snatched from the dreamy shores of deep sleep 250 – 300 times during the night – most recalled hearing something a few times. Whether they knew their sleep was disturbed or not, their bodies knew something was up.

These otherwise healthy volunteers experienced an “immediate and significant adverse effect on insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance,” according to the study’s lead author, Esra Tasali, MD.

After the disturbances in their deep sleep, subjects needed more insulin to process glucose, and they experienced reduced tolerance to glucose. According to the researchers, the sensitivity they experienced was the same they would experience if they gained 20 to 30 pounds.

This is particularly significant for older adults, as the time they spend in deep sleep increases with age. Learning strategies to increase the amount of good sleep one gets at night may help reduce Type 2 diabetes risk.