Inadequate Sleep May in Itself Up Odds of Diabetes Onset

Inadequate Sleep May in Itself Up Odds of Diabetes Onset

Troubled sleep, short sleep, and sleep apnea predicted the onset of type 2 diabetes, independent of mental-health disorders, in a prospective study of young, healthy military personnel.

The paper was published online July 8 in Diabetes Care.  It is the first study to clearly show that lack of a good night’s sleep may be an independent risk factor for subsequent diabetes, rather than merely a marker for a mental-health disorder such as depression or posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the researchers say.

Sleep-Deprived Citizens, Diabetes Epidemic

In the United States, the incidence of diabetes has risen dramatically over the past 30 years, while the average hours of nightly sleep have declined over that time, the authors report. A recent study showed that close to a third of full-time workers in the United States get 6 or fewer hours of sleep each night, they note. Poor sleep, depression, and PTSD have all been reported to predict a higher risk for type 2 diabetes, but it was unclear whether sleep disturbances merely reflected mental-health disorders.

Based on these outcomes, “it is unlikely that sleep simply serves as a surrogate marker for associated mental-health conditions previously shown to predict diabetes risk,” according to the authors.

“Confirmation of these findings through further analyses may advance our understanding of diabetes pathophysiology and create new opportunities for prevention,” they conclude.

Diabetes Care. Published online July 8, 2013. Abstract

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