Too Little Sleep Could Equal Type II Diabetes

A recent study shows there is a potential link between a person’s lack of sleep and their risk of getting Type II diabetes, and despite the small sample size, physicians say there is some credence to it.

The study found that less sleep can lead to more free fatty acids in the blood, which can inhibit a person’s effective management of their blood sugar levels.

“This was a small study done on 19 men who were overall healthy and between the ages of 18 to 30 so it’s difficult to generalize these results to the rest of the population,” said Maria Pena, MD, director of the Center for Weight Management at Syosset Hospital and an endocrinologist. “Another larger study including women and a more diverse population age should be done to further validate the findings in this study. However, the hormonal variations that they noted including the correlation between higher insulin and free fatty acid levels and the incidence of diabetes did make sense physiologically; therefore I am not surprised by these findings. For years we have known that sleep apnea is associated with metabolic syndrome (borderline hypertension, dyslipidemia, elevated glucose levels) and it may be due to these same physiological changes in fatty acid levels and insulin resistance that was noted in this study.”

Rifka Schulman, MD, director of inpatient diabetes at LIJ Medical Center, said of the study, “Sleep restriction was associated with higher levels of free fatty acids and worsened sensitivity to insulin, factors that could promote increased risk of type 2 diabetes and altered metabolism. The importance of achieving adequate sleep is likely an overlooked issue but is only one small lifestyle component that contributes to metabolic risk.”