Firdaus Khan
Young adults who do not get enough deep sleep may be increasing their risk of type 2 diabetes, according to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, said Dr. KK Aggarwal, President, Heart Care Foundation of India.
Failing to sleep deeply for just three nights running has the same negative effect on the body's ability to manage insulin as gaining 20 to 30 pounds. Three nights of interrupted sleep effectively gave people in their 20s the glucose and insulin metabolisms of people three times their age. These findings demonstrate a clear role for slow-wave sleep in maintaining normal glucose control. A profound decrease in slow-wave sleep had an immediate and significant adverse effect on insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance. Improving the quality of sleep, especially for people as they age or if they are obese, could be an important step in preventing the onset of type 2 diabetes.
The researchers recruited five men and four women, all lean and healthy, who were between the ages of 20 and 31 years. The researchers first observed the participants for two nights of uninterrupted sleep, during which they slept for 8.5 hours, to establish their normal sleep patterns.
They then observed the same participants over a three-night study period, during which the researchers deliberately disturbed their sleep when their brain waves indicated the beginning of slow wave sleep. The sounds used to interrupt the sleep patterns were loud enough to move the participants to a different level of sleep but not loud enough to fully wake them. This decrease in slow-wave sleep resembles the changes in sleep patterns caused by 40 years of aging.
Young adults spend 80 to 100 minutes per night in slow-wave sleep, while people over age 60 generally have less than 20 minutes. At the end of each study, the researchers gave intravenous glucose (a sugar solution) to each subject; they then took blood samples every few minutes to measure the levels of glucose and insulin, the hormone that controls glucose uptake. When the researchers analyzed the data they learned that the participants were almost 25 percent less sensitive to insulin after nights of interrupted sleep. As their insulin sensitivity declined, they needed to make more insulin to process the same amount of glucose.
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