Could Sleeping Late Lessen Diabetes Risk?

A new study finds that getting 2 consecutive nights of extended sleep seems to offset the increased risk of diabetes that’s linked to short-term sleep restriction.

Led by Josiane Broussard, PhD, an assistant research professor in the department of integrative physiology at the University of Colorado, a team of researchers recruited 19 healthy young men for its study. The volunteers were allowed to sleep normally on 1 occasion, spending more than 8 hours in bed for 4 nights. The same healthy young men were then deprived of sleep for 4 consecutive nights, sleeping for only 4.5 hours on each of those nights. Participants spent an average of 4.3 of those hours actually sleeping each night, according to the authors, who subsequently allowed the volunteers 2 nights of extended sleep. The participants averaged 9.7 hours of sleep during each of those 2 nights.
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Broussard and colleagues then determined the insulin sensitivity as well as the disposition index of each participant, which helps to predict diabetes risk. After 4 sleep-restricted nights, the volunteers’ insulin sensitivity decreased by 23%, while their diabetes risk increased by 16%, according to the authors, who note that insulin sensitivity and diabetes risk returned to normal sleep levels after 2 nights of extended sleep.

While getting a good amount of sleep each night is not always possible during the work week, “people should try very hard to protect their sleep when they do get an opportunity to sleep in, and [should] sleep as much as possible to pay back the sleep debt,” says Broussard.

However, she adds, “we really don’t want to say that you can go on forever getting short sleep during the week and catching up on weekends—like it’s a free pass,” she says, noting that the study was only done once.

“But if the cycle is repeated week after week,” continues Broussard, “we don’t know that you would be able to fully recover with only 2 days of sleep. On the plus side, it gives us some hope that we are able to recover from a couple of nights of short sleep every once in a while.”

—Mark McGraw

Reference:

Broussard J, Wroblewski K, et al. Two Nights of Recovery Sleep Reverses the Effects of Short-term Sleep Restriction on Diabetes Risk. Diabetes Care. 2016.