Sleep Time May Increase Diabetes Risk

Too much or not enough sleep mayraise an individual's risk of developingtype 2 diabetes, independent of age,blood pressure, smoking status, andwaist circumference. For the study,researchers assessed the impact ofsleep duration on the development ofdiabetes in >1100 middle-aged andelderly men who were diabetes-freein 1987 to 1989. The participants werefollowed for 15 years. During the long-termstudy, the researchers found thatmen getting no more than 6 hours ofsleep a night, as well as those gettingmore than 8 hours, faced a considerableincreased risk of developing thedisease, compared with men getting 7to 8 hours of sleep a night.

Specifically, the risk of diabeteswas 2-fold higher in men with shortsleep duration and >3-fold higher inmen reporting long sleep duration,compared with men sleeping 7 to 8hours a night. The researchers noted,however, that relative risks for diabeteswere lowered "considerably" when adjusted for testosterone. Theobservation suggested that theeffects of sleep duration could bemediated through changes in thebody's levels of this hormone. (Thefindings were reported in DiabetesCare, March 2006.)