Can good sleep help prevent diabetes? — Harvard Gazette

Getting regular sleep may help prevent type 2 diabetes, according to a new study.

A team led by researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital analyzed the sleep patterns of study participants over seven nights and then followed them for over seven years. The researchers found that people with the most irregular sleep patterns were 34% more likely to develop diabetes. Diabetes Care.

“Our study identifies modifiable lifestyle factors that may help lower the risk of developing type 2 diabetes,” said the lead author. Sheena KiannelshiHe is a research scientist in the Channing Division of Network Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital.

Type 2 diabetes affects nearly 500 million people worldwide, Top 10 causes The number of people affected by the disease is expected to more than double by 2050, to 1.3 billion.

The new study analyzed accelerometry data from more than 84,000 participants in the UK Biobank study, who were on average 62 years old (57% female, 97% white) and initially did not have diabetes. Participants wore accelerometers, watch-like devices that monitored them over a period of seven and a half years, primarily to track the development of diabetes through medical records.

This study was set out to investigate two important questions: first, to determine whether irregular sleep duration promotes the development of diabetes through circadian rhythm disruption and sleep disorders, and second, to examine whether this association varies by genetic predisposition to diabetes.

After controlling for various risk factors, the researchers found that irregular sleep patterns were associated with a higher risk of diabetes, and this association was stronger in people with longer sleep duration and lower polygenic risk scores for diabetes.

The data revealed that compared with participants with regular sleep patterns, those with irregular sleep (whose daily sleep duration varied by more than 60 minutes on average) had a 34% higher risk of developing diabetes. The risk decreased but persisted even after accounting for indicators of lifestyle, comorbidities, family history of diabetes, and obesity.

The study had several limitations. The specific lifestyle information used in the study was collected five years before the accelerometer study began, which may have affected the accuracy of the results. Also, assessment of sleep duration based on a seven-day period may not capture long-term sleep patterns. Finally, study participants were primarily healthy, older, and white, which may not be representative of results from a more diverse population.

The researchers plan to study younger age groups and participants from diverse ethnic backgrounds, and are also interested in exploring the biological reasons why sleep irregularities increase the risk of diabetes.

“Our findings may improve diabetes prevention at many levels,” Chianese says. “Clinically, they may help improve patient care and treatment plans. Public health guidelines may encourage regular sleep patterns. However, further studies are needed to fully understand the mechanisms and confirm our results in other populations.”

Authors: In addition to Chianese, Brigham authors include Heming Wang, Tamar Sofer, and Susan Redline. Other authors include Raymond Nordham, Andrew Phillips, Martin K. Rutter, and Tierney Huang (formerly of Brigham and Women's).

Disclosures: Phillips has received research funding from Versalux and Delos and is a director and founder of Circadian Health Innovations PTY LTD.

Funding: This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (grant number R01HL155395) and UKB Project 85501. Kianersi was supported by an American Heart Association Postdoctoral Fellowship (grant number: 24POST1188091).