Teen Diabetes Risk Reduced With Sleep

New research shows that overweight teens that enjoy a full night's sleep can drastically reduce the chances of developing type 2 diabetes.

That's the word from researchers at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. They discovered that when teens or adolescents did not receive a sufficient amount of sleep that they experienced an increase in their glucose levels. Surprisingly, they also found that the higher rates were also present in adolescents who slept for too long at one time.

The study looked at the results of 62 teenagers who were considered to be overweight. Sleep patterns were monitored and glucose levels were periodically checked. Researchers specifically studied the participant's sleep architecture, as well as analyzing their sleep stages.

What they discovered was that when participants received between seven-and-a-half and eight-and-a-half hours of sleep per night, both their insulin and blood sugar levels remained within optimum ranges.

But when participants were denied sufficient amounts of sleep, their insulin secretion and blood glucose levels suffered as a result.

The end result showed that too much or too little sleep could both be directly connected to higher glucose levels in the blood while less than optimal periods of deep sleep contributed to a decrease in the secretion of insulin.

The author of the study, Dr. Dorit Koren, summed up the results.

“Our study found that to keep glucose levels stable, the optimal amount of sleep for teenagers is 7.5 to 8.5 hours per night,” said Koren.

He added: “In the meantime, our study reinforces the idea that getting adequate sleep in adolescence may help to protect against type 2 diabetes.”

The results of the study have been published in the journal Diabetes Care.