Sleeping Under Six Hours Linked to Diabetes

Not getting enough sleep could increase our risk of diabetes, irrespective of whether or not we eat a healthy diet.

Getting enough sleep is essential for our mental and physical wellbeing. It helps us consolidate our memories and aids physical recovery, and not getting enough has been shown to contribute to heart disease, obesity, neurodegenerative disorders and depression.

And yet, one in three adults in the U.S. reports not getting enough of it, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Now, according to new research, from Uppsala University in Sweden, this cohort may also be at risk of Type 2 diabetes.

Diabetes affects roughly one in ten Americans, the CDC estimates, with roughly 90 to 95 percent of cases being Type 2. Type 2 diabetes occurs when your body's cells become resistant to the hormone insulin, which is important in controlling blood sugar levels.

This type of diabetes is often preventable, with risk factors including being overweight, not getting enough exercise, genetics, diet, and now sleep.

In the study, published in the journal JAMA Network Open, researchers analyzed data from 247,867 participants drawn from the UK BioBank, a biomedical database investigating the respective contributions of genetics and environment to the development of various diseases.

Participants were separated into four sleep categories: normal sleepers, getting 7 to 8 hours per night; mild short sleepers, getting 6 hours per night; moderate short sleepers, getting 5 hours per night; and extreme short, getting 3 to 4 hours. Their dietary habits were then evaluated based on population-specific consumption of red meat, processed meat, fruits, vegetables and fish.

The participants were then given a follow up examination roughly 12 years later. During these follow-ups, roughly 3.2 percent of participants had been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. By comparing these diagnoses with the original data, the team found that participants who slept for less than six hours per night were significantly more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes, with the risk increasing with lower sleep averages. What's more, this association persisted even among individuals following a healthy diet.

"These findings suggest that adopting a healthy diet may not reduce the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes among those with habitual short sleep duration," the researchers write.

These results are purely observational and more work is needed to determine the mechanisms underlying this association. However, the study acts as a wake-up call to prioritize sleep as well as diet and exercise when it comes to protecting our overall health.

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