Study Links Poor Sleep to Type 2 Diabetes Risk

by | Apr 11, 2016 | 2013, Diabetes, Pancreatic Health, Sleep

Written by Greg Arnold, DC, CSCS.  Sleeping less than 5 hours per night increases the risk of type 2 diabetes by 34% while just 1-3 more hours of sleep have a 6% risk reduction. 

“A good night’s sleep” is more than just a saying, it’s the cornerstone of a healthy lifestyle. Lack of sleep not only affects mental health conditions such depression, suicide risk, and anxiety (1, 2, 3) but also our physical well-being by increasing the risk of obesity, high blood pressure (4, 5), overall illness (morbidity) and death (mortality) (6, 7). In addition, lack of sleep has also been shown to impair the ability to control blood sugar in adults (8).

Now a new study (9) has linked poor sleep duration and quality to an increased risk of type 2 diabetes.

In the study, 12,514 subjects (6123 men, 6391 women) participating in the Isfahan healthy heart program (10) provided information on their sleep habits via a questionnaire (11). Blood samples were provided and type 2 diabetes mellitus was diagnosed if their fasting blood sugar (taken upon waking) was > 126 milligrams/deciliter, if blood sugar was > 200 mg/dL 2 hours after a meal (called “post prandial”), or if the patient was on diabetic medication.

The researchers found that compared those younger than 60 years of age, sleeping less than 5 hours sleep per night had a 34% increased risk of type 2 diabetes, those sleeping 6-8 hours had a 6% reduced risk, and those sleeping more than 9 hours per night had a 3% reduced risk (p = 0.02). No statistical significance was seen regarding sleep duration in those older than 60 years of age (p = 0.60).

In acknowledging that more sleep (> 9 hours) was not necessarily beneficial in reducing type 2 diabetes risk, the researchers suggest a mental component due to over-activity with the “fight or flight” part of the nervous system, called the “sympathetic nervous system” due to stress. This can disrupt blood sugar control (12, 13) and poor blood sugar control is associated with psychological distress (14, 15).

For the researchers, “sleep duration of 5 hours or less in individuals under age 60 years is associated with an increased prevalence of diabetes mellitus and an impaired glucose tolerance test” and that “This finding should be confirmed in longitudinal studies.”

Source: Najafian, J., et al. “Association between sleep duration and diabetes mellitus: Isfahan Healthy Heart Program.” Nigerian journal of clinical practice 16.1 (2013): 59-62.

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Posted January 18, 2016.

Greg Arnold is a Chiropractic Physician practicing in Hauppauge, NY.  You can contact Dr. Arnold directly by emailing him at PitchingDoc@msn.com or visiting his web site at www.PitchingDoc.com.

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