Insufficient Sleep May Be Linked To Increased Diabetes Risk

ScienceDaily (Aug. 11, 2009) — Short sleep times, experienced by many individuals in Westernized societies, may contribute to the development of insulin resistance and reduced glucose tolerance, which in turn may increase the long-term risk of diabetes, according to a new study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM).

Sleep curtailment is an increasingly common aspect of the Western lifestyle, which is characterized by physical inactivity and overeating. Today, many Americans sleep fewer than six hours each night and individuals who report such short sleep times have in previous studies demonstrated an increased risk of developing diabetes. This new study examined whether reduced sleep duration itself may increase the risk of developing diabetes when combined with physical inactivity and overeating.

Researchers in this study subjected a group of healthy middle-aged men and women to two controlled 14-day periods of sedentary living with free access to food and 5.5 or 8.5 hour bedtimes. When the subjects had their bedtimes decreased from 8.5 hours to 5.5 hours they showed changes in their response to two common sugar tests, which were similar to those seen in people with an increased risk of developing diabetes.

"Our findings raise the possibility that when the unhealthy aspects of the Westernized lifestyle are combined with reduced sleep duration, this might contribute to the increased risk of many overweight and sedentary individuals developing diabetes," said Plamen Penev, MD, PhD, of the University of Chicago and a senior author of the study. "If confirmed by future larger studies, these results would indicate that a healthy lifestyle should include not only healthy eating habits and adequate amounts of physical activity, but also obtaining a sufficient amount of sleep."

Since the conclusions of this study are based on the detailed evaluation of a small group of subjects over a limited period of time under carefully controlled laboratory conditions, Dr. Penev emphasizes that additional intervention studies will be needed to examine the impact of habitual sleep curtailment on human glucose metabolism.

Other researchers working on the study include Arlet Nedeltcheva, Lynn Kessler and Jacqueline Imperial of the University of Chicago. The study was supported by NIH grants.

The article, "Exposure to recurrent sleep restriction in the setting of high caloric intake and physical inactivity results in increased insulin resistance and reduced glucose tolerance," will appear in the September 2009 issue of JCEM.

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Adapted from materials provided by The Endocrine Society, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/release...90810174301.htm

I *hate* these sort of things because I am a person who is always short of sleep. Not because I don't have enough hours in the day to get some decent sleep, but because I have been quite an insomniac most of my life. I always toss and turn for an hour or more before getting to sleep at night, and usually wake up 2-3 times during the night and toss and turn for an hour or more each time. I've been like this since I was a teenager.

And its frustrating as I can't easily do anything to control it - as I can my diet, my exercise, and other things under my conscious control. But I can't *make* myself get a good night's sleep! I mean over the years I've tried all sorts of things - taking melatonin, chamomile tea, warm milk, keeping the room quiet and dark - just about everything short of taking sleeping pills (which I utterly don't want to do).

So when I keep reading these things about "make sure you get a good night's sleep" I always want to scream "HOW? HOW?" It's not like avoiding carbs or something I can control voluntarily.

lose all caffeine, avoid computer and tv at night and try to sleep at a regular time, for starters

I am caffeine free, I go to bed about the same time every night, I never watch TV (I don't think my TV gas been turned on in a few years). I *am* on my computer every evening but always get off by 9 PM so I can start to go into evening "shutdown" mode, and usually just read from then until bedtime.

two other things I have found helpful are avoiding all sodium benzoate and not using headphones in general.

Hmm... headphones? That seems like an odd correlation, but since I use headphones about once or twice a year I can't feel it's an issue for me. No clue what sodium benzoate is however, but Google is my friend.

EDIT: Now that I've read up a little on sodium benzoate I don't feel ultra-concerned.

I don't drink carbonated beverages or fruit juices, or eat commercial salad dressings, or jams. I guess I eat pickles a few times a year. I just had some pickles on Sunday! Of course who can say about "condiments"? And I do love cinnamon, which apparently contains it naturally.

It's a perservative:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_benzoate

A little bit of starchy carbs in the evening can help too, ups the serotonin

This was the cause of a friends depression and poor sleep quality:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/13/health/13real.html

how much do you exercise, what do you do and for how long have you been doing it?

I have to admit, not much. Especially in the summertime when I go into estivation mode. Walking to and from the bus to work every day, and walking the dog, are currently about it for me - a drop in the bucket .

I don't know about you but I always hate the typical advice about insomnia. It doesn't freaking work if you have have hard core insomnia but it gets spouted like some sort of magical incantation. I think we menopausal women just have a lot of sleep issues due to changes in hormones.

Anyway, my insomnia is that I wake up too early, before I've had enough sleep. I've experimented with a variety of non-prescription drug things and so far the one that seems to work pretty reliably is to take 1/2 of a benadryl type antihistamine before bed (it reaches maximum efficiency 2 hours after taking) then taking a melatonin when I wake up in the wee hours. But my issue is staying asleep, not falling asleep.

I will get 8-9 hours of sleep that way but I always have a little hang-over from the antihistamine for a few hours the next day.

Just wanted to share that in case you haven't tried it yet. I'm also taking GABA and 5-HTP before bed but I don't think they're helping.

I have known too many women with sleeping troubles to think the solution is really easy, such as not watching tv before bed. My personal opinion is that it is somehow related to hormones as they rise and fall for women throughout the month, and then as they enter perimenopause, spend years there, and then go into menopause....sigh...

LOL, Nancy, we were posting at the same time. But I see we both tend to think it's related to hormones and menopause, etc.

That sounds fine to me.

Do you ever sleep better?

Yeah, this has always been an issue for me, but it got magnfied about tenfold when I hit those damn menopausal years.



Hmm, I do take melatonin, but have not tried the benadryl. I do have some around the house so maybe will give it a try and see if I notice anything. Of course it never has made me feel sleepy when I've taken it during my waking hours however.