A relationship between sleep and type two diabetes?

Is there a relationship between the number of hours of sleep someone enjoys and the likelihood of them developing type two diabetes? The answer could be yes, according to this story (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080101093903.htm) in Science Daily.

In case you don’t want to click the link, let me just give you some highlights: Researchers at the University of Chicago have discovered that suppressing the amount of sleep otherwise healthy young adults get increases their likelihood of developing type two diabetes. Depriving these individuals of two or three day’s worth of deep sleep was found to lead to a decrease in insulin sensitivity — a decrease that was comparable to gaining twenty to thirty pounds!

This is the first study to conclusively link sleep deprivation and type two diabetes. Previous studies had linked poor sleep patterns to obesity and other risk factors. From this research, it is clear that slow-wave sleep plays a role in maintaining normal glucose control.

Sleep patterns tend to change as we age (just like everything else, alas!) which could play part of the role in the relationship between insulin sensitivity and increasing age. Subjects in this study were all in their twenties, and slept for over 8 hours — yet their sleep was interrupted repeatedly throughout the evening. At the end of each study, the researchers gave intravenous glucose (a sugar solution) to each subject, then took blood samples every few minutes to measure the levels of glucose and insulin, the hormone that controls glucose uptake.

I think the results are fascinating, especially as we have some measure of control over how much sleep we get. Go check it out for yourself, and let me know what you think!