A research study done by the Yale School of Medicine and found that there may be a connection between sleep habits and type 2 diabetes. They studied over 1700 men between the ages of 40 and 70 over a period of 15 years including questionnaires, blood samples, and home visits.
It’s no surprise that six to eight hours of sleep made people the healthiest. Men who reported sleeping less than six hours a night or more than eight hours were three times as likely to develop type 2 diabetes. Similar research has shown the same patterns for women as well as men.
Too little or too much sleep can cause hormonal imbalances and metabolic changes. Those hormonal and metabolic changes can decrease tolerance for carbohydrates and increase resistance to insulin.
Swing shift workers are prime candidates for sleep problems and often are diagnosed with high blood pressure, obesity, high cholesterol, and higher risk of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes.
But the same studies show that people who improve their sleeping habits were able to make significant improvements in glucose tolerance tests.
