Get Enough Sleep To Ward Off Diabetes

Not getting enough sleep may lead to symptoms of pre-diabetes, according to new research from the University of Chicago Medical Center.

A study found that lack of sleep can raise blood levels of free fatty acids (FFA) in healthy young men, which could lead to metabolic and insulin complications.

“At the population level, multiple studies have reported connections between restricted sleep, weight gain and type 2 diabetes,” said Dr. Esra Tasali, senior author of the study and assistant professor of medicine at the University of Chicago. “Experimental laboratory studies, like ours, help us unravel the mechanisms that may be responsible.”

Three nights of bad sleep is all it takes

A total of 19 healthy male subjects between the ages of 18 and 30 were recruited for the study. The participants were monitored after two scenarios: when they got around eight hours of sleep and when they slept for about four hours.

Researchers found that after just three nights of getting approximately four hours of sleep per night, the men had higher blood levels of fatty acids in the morning, which inhibited their internal mechanisms for blood sugar control.

“Curtailed sleep produced marked changes in the secretion of growth hormone and levels of noradrenaline — which can increase circulating fatty acids,” said lead study author Josiane Broussard, Ph.D. “The result was a significant loss of the benefits of insulin. This crucial hormone was less able to do its job. Insulin action in these healthy young men resembled what we typically see in early stages of diabetes.”

General health recommendations about sleep suggest that adults get seven to nine hours of sleep per night.

The study is published in Diabetologia.

Source: Newswise