A new study about sleep published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism looked at the data from 788 healthy European men and women aged 30 to 60 years old as part of the “European Relationship between Insulin Sensitivity and Cardiovascular Disease” (EGIR-RISC) study.
The link between sleep and insulin
They looked at factors like activity levels and how much sleep the study participants got and then analyzed their diabetes risk using a tool called a hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamp, which measures how well your body uses insulin.
Using the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institutes’ current sleep recommendations for men—seven hours a night—the study compared whether men had good glucose metabolism. They found a link between sleeping more than seven hours or fewer than seven hours and less responsiveness of the cells to insulin. This meant that men who got more or fewer than seven hours of sleep reduced glucose uptake and therefore had an increased risk of developing diabetes.
It’s interesting to note that there was no similar link identified among the female study participants.
The diabetes epidemic in America
The American Diabetes Association reports that in the United States, about 29.1 million men, women and children have diabetes. The most common form is Type 2 diabetes, which occurs when insulin isn’t used effectively by the body. Type 1 diabetes is described as the body’s inability to produce insulin.
So, what causes Type 2 diabetes in the United States? The two biggest lifestyle factors are lack of exercise and obesity. The two factors aren’t necessarily always linked to each other though, as people of normal weight can still develop Type 2 diabetes. Having Type 2 diabetes when you’re not overweight isn’t talked about much in the media, but it exists. In fact, one in three people with Type 2 diabetes are undiagnosed. Some of that may be due to the fact that they’re lean and therefore assume they can’t develop diabetes.
