- People who sleep less than 5 hours a day may be at increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
- Researchers also reported that eating a healthy diet did not reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes due to lack of sleep.
- However, the researchers added that daily exercise may reduce the risk of diabetes and offset the consequences of sleep deprivation.
According to the paper, people who regularly get less than five hours of sleep each night have a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes, regardless of their diet. study Published in today’s magazine JAMA network open.
The researchers used data from 247,867 participants between the ages of 38 and 71 (mean age nearly 56). UK Biobank To investigate the relationship between sleep patterns, eating habits, and type 2 diabetes.
Participants completed an electronic survey as follows:Approximately how many hours of sleep do you get every 24 hours, including naps?? ” They also answered questions about their eating habits.
Scientists classified participants into one of four categories of daily sleep duration.
- 7-8 hours – typical
- 6 hours – rather short
- 5 hours – reasonably short
- 3-4 hours – very short
Approximately 75% of participants reported normal sleep duration. Approximately 20% reported that their sleep duration was somewhat short, approximately 4% reported that it was moderately short, and less than 1% reported that it was extremely short.
Diet scores ranged from 0 (unhealthy) to 5 (healthy). Participants’ scores are as follows:
- 1% score 0
- 7% score 1
- 17% score 2
- 27% got 3
- 29% got a 4
- 17% got a 5
Researchers noted that prolonged sleep deprivation can lead to a variety of health problems, including an increased risk of type 2 diabetes. In fact, researchers found that people who slept less than five hours a day had a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes than those who slept a normal amount of time.
The average follow-up period for this study was 12 years. During this period, 3% of participants (7,905 people) developed their type 2 diabetes.
Scientists have shown that increasing your daily sleep time to seven hours may reduce your risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
However, they acknowledged that for some, challenges may make achieving this goal difficult. Obstacles include work schedules, child care responsibilities, health conditions such as sleep apnea, and financial pressures.
“This doesn’t surprise me,” he said Dr. Poya Shafipoura family and obesity medicine physician at Providence St. John’s Health Center in California, was not involved in the study.
“If you don’t sleep well or don’t sleep long enough, your insulin levels can drop. You might be hungrier than usual the next day, so you’ll eat less. Long term. These can contribute to the development of diabetes,” Shafipour said. Today’s medical news.
“I wasn’t surprised, but I was relieved because it was proof of what I’ve been talking about,” he added. “I can share this information with my patients that sleep shouldn’t be ignored. Many times they don’t make it a priority. People use their phones or play games when they should be sleeping. Sleep hygiene is extremely important to your overall health.”
Although it is true that participants who ate a healthy diet had a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes, the study results do not support the idea that a healthy diet can offset less sleep, the researchers said. said.
Researchers noted that a healthy lifestyle may lower the risk of diabetes.
they identified Small survey in 2021 High-intensity exercise has been shown to reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
Furthermore, they Population-based cohort study A study using UK Biobank participants also found that even people who sleep short may have a lower risk of developing diabetes if they engage in regular physical activity.
“Exercise directly affects skeletal muscles, which are essential for regulating blood sugar levels. It promotes the expression of glucose transporters in these muscles, which facilitates the uptake of glucose from the bloodstream.” christian benedictsaid one of the study authors, Associate Professor at the Department of Biosciences at Uppsala University in Sweden. Today’s medical news. “Maintaining a healthy diet, such as consuming more complex carbohydrates, also has a positive impact on blood sugar levels, but this effect may not be as important as the effect of exercise on impaired blood sugar control caused by sleep deprivation. there is.”
But not everyone agrees with that assessment.
“I don’t agree that vigorous exercise probably lowers the risk of diabetes in the short term, but I don’t think it’s a substitute for regular sleep,” Shafipour said. “Eat and exercise are important, but so is sleep.”
It’s not clear whether eating plans such as the Mediterranean diet reduce the risk of diabetes in people who sleep poorly because researchers haven’t looked at different types of diets.
Additionally, macronutrients and micronutrients were not investigated in this study, so it is unclear whether they can counteract the effects of short sleep duration.
Another limitation is that sleep duration and eating habits were self-reported.