People who sleep less are prone to become obese and type ll diabetes. Consistent less sleep will result in fatigue and irritation.
Scientists have found that the amount of sleep one gets can affect blood sugar levels, hormones controlling appetite, and also brain's acuity of high calorie food. A new study found that sleep deprivation impairs the ability of fat cells to respond to insulin. Insulin is a hormone which functions and regulates metabolism which also affects diabetes.
The study was conducted on seven healthy men and woman to analyze the causes of less sleep. Initially they were allowed to sleep normally for 4 days and nights and then for the next four days and nights they were limited to sleep only for 4.5 hours. Their meals and calorie intake was strictly controlled too.
During the sleep deprivation period, when their blood samples were tested, it was found that the overall insulin sensitivity was 16 percent lower, than after the nights of normal sleep. It was also noticed that their fat cells' sensitivity to insulin was dropped to 30 percent.
"This is the equivalent of metabolically aging someone 10 to 20 years just from four nights of partial sleep restriction," Matthew Brady, the senior author of the study and an associate professor of medicine at the University of Chicago said. "Fat cells need sleep, and when they don't get enough sleep, they become metabolically groggy."
An excess of sugar and cholesterol is accumulated in the blood which increases the risk of diabetes and heart disease. This can be caused if insulin resistance continues.
"This takes the research on the effect of sleep deprivation on metabolism one step further, by revealing a molecular mechanism involved in the reduction of total body insulin sensitivity," Dr. Nathaniel F. Watson, co-director of the University of Washington Medicine Sleep Center, in Seattle, who did not take part in the study also said. "If you want to make a causal argument that short sleep is causing diabetes, one of the key elements is coming up with a physiological mechanism by which this would happen."
Resistance of insulin seen in the study can be avoided by sleeping more if the results of the study are proven right in the future.
"Until somebody invents a procedure or a pill that's going to approximate all aspects of sleep, really what you're left with is what is a pretty simple treatment," Dr. Watson said. "Just turn off the computer and go to bed earlier."
