2023-07-17 16:16:00
Insufficient sleep impairs glucose regulation, which increases the risk of diabetes. But what in the sleeping brain regulates blood sugar is still not known.
Researchers, whose work is published in July 2023 in the journal Cell Reports Medicine, have discovered a mechanism that may explain how the deep sleep stage helps regulate insulin sensitivity, thereby improving blood sugar control the next day .
A night’s sleep consists of several cycles lasting regarding 90 minutes. Each cycle takes place in five phases, including that of deep sleep. (Deep, REM… What are the phases of sleep?)
During this stage, when brain activity synchronously produces two types of waves, called sleep spindles and slow waves, it sets off a chain reaction that increases the body’s sensitivity to insulin, Matthew Walker discovered. , professor of neuroscience and psychology at the University of California at Berkeley, and his colleagues.
For years, they studied how these waves improved the ability of the hippocampus, a part of the brain associated with learning, to retain information. (Deep sleep prevents and delays Alzheimer’s symptoms)
The new study shows a new and previously unrecognized role in blood sugar management.
The researchers first looked at sleep data from a group of 600 people. They found that these coupled brain waves during deep sleep predicted blood sugar control the next day. This coupling was more predictive of blood sugar than sleep duration or sleep efficiency.
A stronger and more frequent coupling of the two types of brain waves predicted a change in state of the body’s nervous system towards a calmer and more soothing branch, that of the parasympathetic nervous system, which was linked to an increased sensitivity of the body. body to insulin, the glucose-regulating hormone that orders cells to absorb glucose from the bloodstream, thus preventing a harmful spike in blood sugar. (Stress and relaxation: what are the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems?)
Stress slows metabolism and burns fewer calories
“Deep sleep brain waves indicate recalibration and calming of the nervous system the following day,” says Walker. “This soothing effect on the nervous system is then combined with a ‘reset’ of the body’s sensitivity to insulin, resulting in more effective blood sugar control the following day. »
These results underscore the importance of sleep for the prevention and treatment of diabetes, he points out.
For more information, see the links below.
Psychomedia with sources: Berkeley, Cell Reports Medicine.
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