New Study Shows Link Between Irregular Sleep And Diabities

There’s new insight into an illness affecting more and more people.

Researchers studying tens of thousands of patients in the United Kingdom found that people who have irregular sleep patterns have a more than 30 per cent higher risk of developing type two diabetes.

“If somebody is getting five hours of sleep one night and getting another eight hours of sleep for another night and this fluctuates a lot, then we say that they have a high sleep irregularity,” says Dr. Sina Kianersi with Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

“Irregular” sleep was defined as sleep duration that changed by an average of 60 minutes or more between nights.

How might fluctuating sleep duration encourage diabetes?

The study couldn’t answer that question, but the Boston team theorize that “circadian disruption and sleep disturbances” could play a role.

The study was published July 17 in Diabetes Care.