NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - An inadequate amount of nightly sleep on a
recurring basis, coupled with a sedentary lifestyle and overeating, may fuel the
development of diabetes, results of a new study hint.
"Our findings suggest that combining the unhealthy aspects of the Westernized
lifestyle with insufficient sleep may add to the risk of overweight and
sedentary individuals to develop diabetes," Dr. Plamen Penev, of the University
of Chicago, Illinois, and a senior author of the study, told Reuters Health.
Penev and colleagues subjected 11 healthy but sedentary middle-aged men and
women to two 14-day periods of sedentary living with free access to food and
either 5.5 hours or 8.5 hours of sleep each night.
As
nightly sleep times changed from 8.5 to 5.5 hours, the participants went to bed
later and got out of bed earlier and, as a result, average sleep duration was
reduced by about two hours a day.
When the adults had their bedtimes decreased from a healthy 8.5 hours to 5.5
hours they showed changes in their response to two common sugar tests, which
were similar to those seen in people with an increased risk of developing
diabetes.
"If confirmed by future larger studies," Penev told Reuters Health, "these
results would indicate that a healthy lifestyle should include not only healthy
eating habits and adequate amounts of physical activity, but also obtaining a
sufficient amount of sleep."
SOURCE: Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, September 2009.
