Sleep and Diabetes Risk in Men
April 12, 2011 by Dr. Marc Darrow, M.D.
Filed under Diabetes
Researchers writing in the medical journal Diabetes Care say that too little or too much sleep increases diabetes risk. The researchers say that men getting 5 to 6 hours of sleep a night were twice as likely to develop diabetes, men getting more than 8 hours were three times more likely to develop diabetes. They also noted that testosterone may be a factor in sleep on diabetes.
Highlights from the study abstract
“OBJECTIVE—Short-term partial sleep restriction results in glucose intolerance and insulin resistance. The purpose of this study was to assess the long-term relationship between sleep duration and the incidence of clinical diabetes.
RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS—A cohort of men from the Massachusetts Male Aging Study without diabetes at baseline (1987–1989) were followed until 2004 for the development of diabetes. Average number of hours of sleep per night was grouped into the following categories: 5, 6, 7, 8, and >8 h. Incidence rates and relative risks (RRs) were calculated for the development of diabetes in each sleep duration category. Those reporting 7 [hours] of sleep per night served as the reference group.
RESULTS—Men reporting short sleep duration (5 and 6 [hours] of sleep per night) were twice as likely to develop diabetes, and men reporting long sleep duration [more than 8 hours of sleep per night] were more than three times as likely to develop diabetes over the period of follow-up.
Elevated risks remained essentially unchanged after adjustment for age, hypertension, smoking status, self-rated health status, education, and waist circumference. (Relative Risks) were altered considerably for the two extreme sleep groups when adjusted for testosterone…suggesting that the effects of sleep on diabetes could be mediated via changes in endogenous testosterone levels.
CONCLUSIONS—Short and long sleep durations increase the risk of developing diabetes, independent of confounding factors. Sleep duration may represent a novel risk factor for diabetes.”
Yaggi HK, Araujo AB, McKinlay JB. Sleep Duration as a Risk Factor for the Development of Type 2 Diabetes. Diabetes Care 29:657-661, 2006.
Read the full abstract
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