- Scientists find that seep plays a significant role in blood sugar regulation.
- A new study predicts exactly how much sleep could optimize blood sugar levels, lowering the risk of type 2 diabetes and other conditions.
- An endocrinologist weighs in on the findings.
Lots of factors, such as diet, genetics, activity levels, and sleep, affect how well your body regulates blood sugar. A new study places emphasis on that last one—sleep. In fact, researchers pinpointed exactly how much sleep it takes to help prevent type 2 diabetes and other blood sugar irregularities.
Meet the Expert: Gillian Goddard, M.D., New York-based endocrinologist, adjunct assistant professor of medicine at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine, and author of The Hormone Loop.
Type 2 diabetes is driven by insulin resistance, or “how much insulin it takes to keep blood sugar levels normal,” explains Gillian Goddard, M.D., New York-based endocrinologist, adjunct assistant professor of medicine at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine, and author of The Hormone Loop. “The more insulin it takes, the more insulin resistant someone is. Insulin resistance is an early sign that someone is more likely to develop prediabetes and diabetes.”
In the study, published in BMJ Open Diabetes Research & Care, researchers looked at the insulin resistance and glucose disposal rates (how well the body is able to process blood sugars) of people with different sleep patterns, then determined whose sleep schedule reaped the most blood sugar-related benefit.
Researchers determined that people who sleep for longer and shorter than average on weeknights have a harder time processing sugar than people who sleep for between 7 and 7 and a half hours per night on weeknights. Specifically, the sweet spot for weeknight sleep was 7.32 hours.
Researchers also found that playing catch-up on weekends may have been helpful, but only to a point. People who slept up to two hours more, total, on the weekends had better blood sugar metabolism than people who didn’t catch up on sleep at all, and those who slept more than two additional hours over the weekend. In other words, there was also a sweet spot for weekend catch-up—too much or too little being a hindrance.
How sleep affects blood sugar
“Getting the right amount of sleep at the right time helps regulate cortisol levels,” says Dr. Goddard. Cortisol is a hormone that plays a role in blood sugar, blood pressure, and the sleep-wake cycle, among other processes. “We know that when people’s sleep is disrupted, due to any number of reasons, cortisol levels rise and that increases insulin resistance,” she adds. “There are great studies of people who work the night shift showing that they are more likely to have insulin resistance and diabetes.”
How blood sugar affects your dreams
In honor of National Sleep Awareness Week, it’s Dream Week at Prevention, so it was only natural that we asked our expert about how findings like this relate to the dream world. “There is some evidence that people with poor blood sugar control have more vivid or bad dreams,” says Dr. Goddard. “This is likely both because high blood sugar makes people more likely to enter the phase of sleep where dreams occur and because dropping glucose wakes people, allowing them to remember their dreams.”
The bottom line
As is the case with many endocrine and hormone-related conditions, both too little and too much sleep may cause issues, Dr. Goddard explains. But this research, in particular, only found an association between sleep duration and blood sugar regulation, which means there are likely other factors at play.
“Sleep is correlated with insulin processing, but that doesn’t mean that sleep is causing changes in blood sugar metabolism,” Dr. Goddard reiterates. “For example, people who sleep longer and need more catch-up sleep on the weekends may be getting poor sleep because their blood sugars are dropping overnight and waking them from sleep—something people are often unaware of. Or, perhaps they have sleep apnea, which causes both poor sleep and poor blood sugar metabolism.”
Dr. Goddard concludes: “All we can take from this study is that sleep and blood sugar metabolism are connected.” But more research is warranted to uncover the nuances of exactly how they’re linked. Speak with your healthcare provider if you’re concerned about your blood sugar and/or sleep patterns.
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