Consistent amount of sleep each night can cut diabetes risk, study suggests
Getting the same amount of sleep each night could help stave off Type 2 diabetes, a new study suggests.
People who had irregular sleep patterns – where day-to-day sleep duration varied by more than an hour on average – had a 34 per cent higher risk of developing the disease than those who had more regular sleep, researchers found.
The research suggests that irregular sleep duration is associated with diabetes risk regardless of genetic risk and average sleep duration.
For the study, researchers analysed sleep patterns over the course of seven nights and then followed people for more than seven years.
Those involved had an average age of 62, were initially free of diabetes and wore accelerometers – devices such as watches that monitor movement – for seven nights.
Data from more than 84,000 people in the UK Biobank Study were used to investigate any possible association between sleep and Type 2 diabetes.
The study found that more irregular sleep duration was associated with higher diabetes risk after adjusting for a wide range of risk factors.
This association was more pronounced in individuals who slept for longer.
Sina Kianersi, the lead study author and a research fellow in the Channing Division of Network Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in the US, said: “Our study identified a modifiable lifestyle factor that can help lower the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.
‘Improving diabetes prevention’
“Our findings underscore the importance of consistent sleep patterns as a strategy to reduce Type 2 diabetes.
“Our findings have the potential to improve diabetes prevention on multiple levels. Clinically, they might inform better patient care and treatment plans.
“Public health guidelines could promote regular sleep patterns. However, more research is needed to fully understand the mechanism and confirm the results in other populations.”
The study is published in the Diabetes Care journal.