2023-09-12 17:56:00
By Melanie Hoffmann, medical editor | September 12, 2023, 7:56 p.m
Type 2 diabetes mellitus can be promoted by various factors. Lifestyle plays an important role, such as: B. the type of diet or the amount of exercise in everyday life. Now researchers have discovered to what extent sleep also influences the risk of developing diabetes. FITBOOK medicine editor Melanie Hoffmann explains the study findings.
It’s the same thing with sleep. Sometimes we have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep. Then there are phases in which we feel like we can get by with just five hours of sleep. At other times, even following nine hours of sleep, we don’t wake up refreshed. But when exactly do sleeping habits become critical and might increase the risk of diabetes? A current study from Boston (USA) provides the answer.
Study on sleep habits and diabetes risk
What role does chronotype play?
The scientists at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital wanted to find out what role chronotype might play in the development of type 2 diabetes. Chronotypes refer to different sleep types, more precisely different sleep-wake rhythms of people. The spectrum ranges from the so-called “larks”, i.e. people who go to bed early and start the day early, to the “night owls” who go to sleep late and get up late.
Also interesting: According to the study, night owls die earlier – and it’s not because of a lack of sleep
Procedure of the study
For their study, the researchers analyzed data from 63,676 nurses that were collected as part of the Nurses’ Health Study II between 2009 and 2017.1 The test subjects, who were between 45 and 65 years old, had neither cancer nor cancer at the start of the study Diabetes nor cardiovascular diseases. At the researchers’ request, the study participants assigned themselves to a chronotype. That is, they had self-categorized their sleeping habits as lark, night owl, or somewhere on the spectrum in between. They also provided information regarding their lifestyle, including:
Diet quality Body weight and BMI Sleep times Smoking habits, if any Alcohol consumption Exercise Family history of diabetes Own diabetes status (over the eight years of the study, in 2009 all participants were free of diabetes)
The test subjects were followed over a period of eight years (until 2017). Changes in lifestyle as well as their state of health might be determined using further surveys. In addition, the scientists were able to view the medical records of the study participants.
Also interesting: Night owls apparently have a higher risk of chronic diseases
Chronotype distribution among the test subjects
Around 11 percent of the nurses stated that they were a clear evening chronotype (“night owl”). In contrast, 35 percent clearly fell into the morning chronotype (“morning person”, Lerche) category. The remaining 54 percent of participants might not clearly assign themselves to either chronotype. This means that they either did not feel like they belonged to either sleep type or only showed a slight tendency towards one of the two. The researchers therefore assigned these women to the “intermediate” category.
A sleep type associated with a significantly increased risk of type 2 diabetes
The analysis showed that sleeping habits were associated with a greatly increased risk of diabetes. Women who clearly identified as night owls had a 72 percent increased risk of diabetes.
A possible explanation might be that evening people generally live unhealthier lives. This conclusion is at least suggested by further findings from the current study. It turned out that women who identified themselves as night owls were 54 percent more likely to have an unhealthier lifestyle than those who identified themselves as larks.
Even when the researchers first looked at lifestyle and then related it to sleep habits, a similar trend emerged. Of the study participants with the healthiest lifestyle, only 6 percent had an evening chronotype. Of the people with the unhealthiest lifestyle, 25 percent were evening chronotypes (night owls).
But what exactly made the night owl lifestyle unhealthy? Study participants with evening chronotypes were more likely to drink alcohol in larger quantities, eat a poor diet, sleep fewer hours per night, smoke, and have unhealthy weight, BMI, and physical activity levels.
Also interesting: The factor that promotes 70 percent of all type 2 diabetes diseases
Unhealthy lifestyle is not the only explanation
“When we took unhealthy lifestyle habits into account, the strong association between chronotype and diabetes risk decreased, but still remained,” explained study author Sina Kianersi in a press release.2 In a further step of their analysis, the researchers expanded their data to include those in the study lifestyle factors that were also asked regarding. This reduced the risk of diabetes significantly, but still remained significantly increased by 19 percent.
Unhealthy diet, too little sleep, smoking, alcohol, obesity and too little exercise play a significant role in the risk of diabetes, but cannot fully explain it. Nevertheless, it seems to be particularly advisable for night owls, who apparently have an increased risk of diabetes due to their sleeping habits, to maintain as healthy a lifestyle as possible – so as not to increase their risk even further. This was also emphasized by study co-author Tianyi Huang: “People who consider themselves to be ‘night owls’ may need to pay more attention to their lifestyle, as their evening chronotype may lead to an increased risk of type 2 diabetes.”
If you have insulin intolerance, it is better to reduce meat and carbohydrates
Anyone who suffers from what is known as insulin intolerance or insulin resistance and also eats meat and lots of carbohydrates every day might have a problem. Insulin intolerance in combination with an unfavorable diet can set in motion a process that can result in type 2 diabetes.
Like a graduate ecotrophologist Professor Nicolai Worm explained in an earlier FITBOOK article, a diet high in sugar combined with obesity and lack of exercise can lead to the body’s cells reacting less to the hormone insulin. This is responsible for various other important metabolic processes in the human body. Insulin intolerance therefore means that the regulation of blood sugar levels and the conversion of sugar into energy are impaired. This causes the blood sugar level to drop. As a result, those affected are hungry more often and might develop type 2 diabetes.
Also interesting: Why exercise is the best medicine for type 2 diabetes
Classification of the study
The strengths of the study are that the test subjects were followed for eight years and the researchers were able to access their medical records. This made it possible to record changes in lifestyle and health.
The weaknesses of the research work, on the one hand, are the selection of study participants and the type of data collection. Since the study only examined women, the results cannot automatically apply to men or various people. In addition, a large part of the information analyzed came from nurses’ self-reports. They were therefore subjective, possibly incomplete or even wrong.
More articles on the topic of diabetes
Further research needed
Educating night owls regarding a healthier lifestyle if they want to avoid diabetes can’t hurt. And despite its weaknesses, the study provides important arguments for this.
Further research is now needed to understand more precisely what effect a person’s chronotype alone has on diabetes and cardiovascular health. This is exactly where the scientists around Kianersi want to conduct further research and gain new insights.
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