Sleep is essential to good health, as it helps maintain normal blood sugar levels without large spikes and dips in blood sugar levels. A good night’s rest also prevents large spikes or drops in blood sugar.
Previous studies have demonstrated the connection between inadequate sleep and an increased risk of diabetes and its development; and now researchers are closer to comprehending why.
Sleep Deprivation
Your sleeping habits have an enormous influence on many aspects of health, from your weight and immune system regulation to controlling blood sugar (or glucose) levels and thus potentially decreasing your chances of diabetes in future.
Your blood sugar typically increases during sleep and then falls off again as part of a natural daily cycle, known as circadian rhythm. But falling asleep too early may disrupt this regular pattern and increase your risk of high blood sugar and diabetes.
Many large epidemiologic studies have linked short sleep duration with diabetes; however, cross-sectional studies can be subject to confounding and observational biases that make mechanistic links difficult to discern. Prospective studies that track sleeping habits over time could provide more clarity into these connections; also providing researchers an opportunity to assess specific sleeping patterns on diabetes risk – for instance those who go to sleep later have more difficulty controlling blood sugar than those who sleep earlier.
Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA)
Studies show that lack of sleep causes your body to produce less insulin or regulate blood sugar properly, potentially leading to prediabetes or, over time, full-blown diabetes.
Poor sleeping habits have been linked with obesity, increasing your risk for type 2 diabetes. Sleep apnea can further raise this risk by disrupting metabolism and decreasing insulin sensitivity.
Diabetes patients should seek a thorough medical examination and overnight sleep study (polysomnography). If you suspect you may have obstructive sleep apnea, speak to your physician about undergoing treatment like weight loss, cessation of snoring or nasal sprays; in extreme cases tracheostomy surgery may be required in order to bypass upper airway obstruction; academic or specialty sleep centers experienced in managing tracheostomies are typically the best place for this procedure. Sleep apnea can also cause excessive daytime drowsiness while driving or operating machinery – potentially dangerous situations requiring extreme caution when driving or operating machinery when operating machinery during daytime hours of daytime.
Circadian Rhythms
Sleep is key in order to avoid major blood sugar spikes the next day, as glucose levels fluctuate throughout the day and rise at night when people go to sleep – known as circadian rhythms.
Circadian rhythms are controlled by your suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN). This master clock receives light signals from the retina through special cells known as ganglion cells that contain melanopsin, then releases hormones that control other systems’ circadian rhythms.
Studies have linked poor sleep to increased risks for diabetes and abnormal insulin sensitivity. Even a single bad night’s sleep (especially for you night-owls) will make your fat cells less insulin-sensitive, resulting in higher blood sugar – all by deactivating phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K), the protein pathway that modulates signaling pathways for insulin. Furthermore, research shows that insufficient or interrupted sleep can misalign circadian oscillators leading to misalignment of circadian oscillators misalignments leading to glucose intolerance.
Stress
Studies have demonstrated that stress causes our bodies to produce hormones which raise blood sugar levels, usually as part of its fight-or-flight response mechanism and to protect us against heart attack or sudden death. While prolonged stress is beneficial in terms of keeping hearts healthy, over time this could lead to high blood sugar.
Hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar at night, can disrupt sleep and make life harder for people living with diabetes. If this situation arises and causes difficulty for you, seek advice from healthcare team.
Sleep can make a dramatic difference to how your blood sugar fluctuates throughout the day, protecting against large fluctuations that could damage the heart over time. Consistency is also key; researchers at UK Biobank study discovered that people who consistently go to bed late were at greater risk of cardiovascular disease due to skipping breakfast and snacking on unhealthy foods throughout their day.
