Sleep Deprivation in Women: A New Risk Factor for Diabetes?

As humans we are always told to get more sleep. “It’s good for you” they say. Well, you can add this to your list of reasons to prioritize sleep: Getting adequate sleep each night may reduce risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

While this may sound like just one of those endless "risk factors" for diabetes, recent studies have shown that women who experience sleep deprivation are just as likely to acquire diabetes as those whose body fat percentage rises.

According to recent research at Columbia University, women who are used to getting enough sleep showed an increase in insulin resistance when their sleep was cut short by just ninety minutes over the course of six weeks. Insulin resistance, an indicator of diabetes, occurs when the body stops responding as well to insulin, thus blood sugars fall out of range.

In this study, 38 healthy women, 11 of them being post-menopausal women, who routinely slept seven hours a night were recruited and randomly divided into two groups. The first group of women were asked to maintain their adequate sleep of seven hours; in the other group, the women were asked to delay their sleep by an hour and a half. This study lasted for 6 weeks where researchers measured insulin, glucose levels, and body fat percentage, via monitors. The study found that reducing sleep by 90 minutes for 6 weeks increased fasting insulin levels by 12%, and 15% among premenopausal women. Insulin resistance increased by 15% and by more than 20% in post-menopausal women. The average blood sugar levels remained stable for all participants throughout the study.

This raises the question, how many hours of sleep should we get? The average female adult needs around seven hours of sleep each night, but the amount of time that is deemed "healthy" enough varies on a variety of factors, including age and health. Evidence has shown, anything less than 7 hours of sleep is considered ‘short’ sleep. In the study mentioned above and various of others, the participants reduced their sleep to 6.2 hours, which caused significant adverse effects for just a 6-week period. This shows that you don’t have to be pulling an all- nighter or be in sleep deprivation to start putting your body at risk for long term health consequences. Dr. St Onge, director of the Center of Excellence for Sleep and Circadian Research at Columbia University, states that with ongoing reduced adequate hours of sleep, the insulin-producing cell will have added stress, eventually leading to type 2 diabetes. It is well established that an increase in body fat percentage is a driving risk factor for type 2 diabetes in women, however there were no signs of increase of fat in all participants. This sheds a light on how mild sleep reduction impacts insulin-producing cells and metabolism.

Well, how is medicine changing with this newfound research? Oura, a wearable sleep-tracking monitor is developing new establishments in intersecting sleep and glucose monitoring. This company, earlier this year, announced partnership with CGMs (Continuous Glucose Monitoring) companies to better integrate sleep and glucose information. The two fields of glucose levels and sleep are merging as more research comes out to link the two. As new research is conducted and technology advances in the field of diabetes, it is prominent more than ever that diabetes is linked to sleep in various ways. So, underline, highlight, bold, this reason on your list in red.

How many of hours of sleep do you get per night on average?

• 7 hours
• More than 7 hours
• 6 hours
• Less than 6 hours

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Written by: Fatima Mahmoud

References:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/11/231113111633.htm

https://www.cnet.com/health/medical/sleeping-more-may-reduce-your-risk-of-diabetes-new-study-suggests/