Effects of deep sleep brain waves on blood sugar levels

summary: EEG during deep sleep may be an important factor in regulating blood sugar levels. This study shows that a combination of sleep spindles and slow waves predicts increased insulin sensitivity, followed by a decrease in blood glucose levels.

This finding highlights that sleep is a potential lifestyle adjustment for improving glycemic control and managing diabetes. In addition, these deep-sleep brainwaves can also be used to predict an individual’s next-day blood sugar levels, which have been proven to be more accurate than traditional sleep indicators.

Important facts:

1. This study suggests that deep sleep EEG, especially the combination of sleep spindles and slow waves, can predict increased insulin sensitivity and improve glycemic control.
2. EEG during deep sleep may be used as a reliable predictor of next-day blood glucose levels, providing a new non-invasive tool for managing glycemic control.
3. The study found that EEG during this particular deep sleep could predict next-day glycemic control more effectively than factors such as sleep duration and sleep efficiency.

sauce: University of California, Berkeley

Researchers know that lack of quality sleep can increase your risk of diabetes. But the reason remains a mystery.

Now, a new discovery by a team of sleep scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, brings us closer to the answer.

Researchers have discovered a potential mechanism in humans that explains how and why brain waves during deep sleep at night regulate the body’s sensitivity to insulin. This improves glycemic control the next day.

Matthew Walker, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, said, “These synchronized brainwaves act like the fingers that flip the first dominoes, leading to a chain reaction of associations that alters the body’s regulation of blood sugar levels, from the brain to the heart. will start.” PhD in Neuroscience and Psychology and senior author of new research.

“In particular, a combination of two brain waves called sleep spindles and slow waves predicts an increase in the body’s sensitivity to a hormone called insulin, resulting in beneficial lowering of blood sugar levels.”

The researchers say this is a great advance because sleep is a modifiable lifestyle element and can be used as part of a painless adjunctive treatment for people with hyperglycemia and type 2 diabetes.

Scientists also noted additional benefits beyond potential new mechanistic pathways.

“In addition to revealing a novel mechanism, these deep-sleeping EEGs can be used as a more sensitive marker of next-day blood glucose levels than traditional sleep indicators,” said researcher Vioma D. Shah. It also shows that it is possible,” he said. PhD at the Walker Center for Human Sleep Science and co-author of the study.

“In addition to the therapeutic relevance of this new finding, this finding also suggests a new non-invasive tool for mapping and predicting someone’s glycemic control: electroencephalograms during deep sleep.”

The team’s findings were published today in the magazine cell report medicine.

For many years, researchers have studied how the coupling of non-rapid eye-moving sleep spindles and deep, slow brain waves correspond to very different functions: those of learning and memory.

In fact, the same research team at the University of California, Berkeley, has previously found that brain waves during deep sleep improve the information retention capacity of the hippocampus, the part of the brain associated with learning.

However, this new study, which builds on a 2021 rodent study, reveals a new, previously unrecognized role for these complex brain waves in humans with respect to the vital bodily functions of glycemic control.

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley first examined sleep data from a group of 600 people. The researchers found that this particular combination of deep sleep EEGs was predictive of next-day glycemic control, even after adjusting for other factors such as age, gender, and sleep duration and quality.

“This particular connection in deep sleep brain waves was more predictive of blood glucose levels than individual sleep duration or sleep efficiency,” said Rafael Valat, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, and co-author of the study. said Mr.

“This shows that there is something uniquely special about ballet that is in tune with the electrophysiological nature of brain oscillations during deep sleep.”

The researchers then set out to search for descending pathways that could explain the relationship between brain waves during deep sleep that send signals in the body and ultimately predict blood sugar regulation.

The researchers’ findings reveal a series of steps that help explain how and why these deep sleep brainwaves are associated with better glycemic control. .

First, they found that stronger and more frequent connections in deep sleep brainwaves predicted a switch in the body’s nervous system state to a more static, calmer branch called the parasympathetic nervous system.

They used heart rate variability as a proxy to measure changes in the body and transition to this low-stress state.

Next, the research team focused on the final stage of blood sugar balance.

The researchers also found that this deep sleep switch to the calmer divisions of the nervous system instructs cells to absorb glucose from the bloodstream, preventing the body from responding to the glucose-regulating hormone insulin, which prevents harmful spikes in blood sugar levels. found to predict increased susceptibility to .

This is especially important for those trying to get out of high blood sugar and type 2 diabetes.

“There’s a series of associations in the statics of nighttime sleep, where deep-sleeping EEG signals the next day’s nervous system recalibration and calming,” says Walker.

“This amazing calming effect on the nervous system will reactivate the body’s sensitivity to insulin, resulting in more effective blood sugar control the next day.”

The researchers then replicated the same effect by examining another group of 1,900 participants.

“After replicating the findings in another cohort, I think we actually became more confident in our own results,” Walker said. “But I wait for others to reproduce it before I really start believing it. That’s my skepticism of the British.”

The scientists said the study was of particular interest given its potential clinical significance in the years to come. Diabetes medications that are already on the market can be difficult for patients to stick to. The same applies to recommended lifestyle changes, such as different eating habits and regular exercise.

But for most people sleep is a mostly painless experience.

And while sleep isn’t the only silver bullet, the new study uncovers the potential for new technology that can safely alter brainwaves during deep sleep to help people better manage their blood sugar levels. may help. The research team said it was a reason for hope.

About this sleep research news

author: Jason Paul
sauce: University of California, Berkeley
contact: Jason Paul – University of California, Berkeley
image: Image credited to Neuroscience News

Original research: open access.
“Coordinated Human Sleep EEG Maps of Peripheral Glucose HomeostasisBy Matthew Walker et al. cell report medicine

overview

Coordinated Human Sleep EEG Maps of Peripheral Glucose Homeostasis

highlight

• Combined non-REM sleep EEG predicts superior next-day glycemic control in two cohorts
• This sleep-glycemic link is mediated in part by autonomic activity
• Sleep may selectively regulate glycemic status via insulin sensitivity
• NREM EEG thus provides a glycemic biomarker and potential therapeutic target

summary

Lack of sleep impairs blood sugar regulation and increases the risk of diabetes. However, it is not yet known that the sleeping human brain regulates blood sugar levels.

A study of more than 600 humans demonstrated that the combination of non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep spindles in the previous night and slow oscillations was associated with improved next-day peripheral glycemic control. .

Furthermore, we show that this sleep-related glucose pathway may affect glycemic status through changes in insulin sensitivity rather than through changes in pancreatic beta-cell function. Moreover, he reproduced these associations in an independent dataset of over 1,900 adults.

Of therapeutic importance, slow oscillations and coupling with the mitotic spindle are the most important sleep predictors of next-day fasting blood glucose, even more important than conventional sleep markers, and the electroencephalogram of hyperglycemia ( EEG) indicator potential.

Taken together, these findings describe a sleep-brain-body framework for optimal glucose homeostasis in humans and provide potential prognostic sleep signatures for glycemic control.