Chronic Short Sleep Can Increase Your Risk Of Type 2 Diabetes, Study Finds

When most people think about reducing their diabetes risk, their minds go straight to diet. And while it's true that the foods you eat have a significant impact on your blood sugar, insulin control, and risk for Type 2 diabetes, they're not the only factor to pay attention to.

A study published in the journal Diabetes and Endocrinology found that people who clocked an average of five hours of sleep per night had a 16% higher risk of developing Type 2 diabetes. Those who got between three and four hours had a 41% increased risk1. 

Researchers looked at data from 247,000 adults enrolled in the UK Biobank with an average age of 55. They placed participants into categories of normal sleep patterns (seven to eight hours per day), mild short (six hours per day), moderate short (five hours per day), and extremely short (three to four hours per day).

They then evaluated people's food choices such as their consumption of red meat, processed meat, fruits, vegetables, and fish, to give them a "healthy diet score" ranging from 0 (unhealthiest) to 5 (healthiest).

They found that those with the healthiest dietary patterns have a 25% reduced risk of developing Type 2 diabetes. Interestingly enough, though, individuals who followed a more nutritious diet still had a heightened risk of Type 2 diabetes if they consistently slept too little.

It's not totally clear why there is such a strong correlation between sleep and diabetes risk. Researchers suspect it could be caused by various mechanisms including impaired cellular insulin sensitivity, increased activity of the sympathetic nervous system, an altered gut microbiota composition, and more.