Adapted from BMJ 23 March 2024
Compared to people who sleep 7 to 8 hours each night, people who slept for five hours or less were more likely to develop type two diabetes. The risk increased in those getting 3-4 hours a night. This risk was present even when people eating a “healthy” diet were compared. This study was done in the UK Biobank participants.
It is already known that night shift workers have an increased rate of metabolic syndrome and cancer. They also have lower life expectancy rates.
If you are sleep deprived, you will also be aware that you tend to eat more, particularly carbohydrate containing foods.
For many people they don’t have a choice over whether they even get the chance to sleep. They may have long commutes, work shifts, work night shifts and have high noise levels when they are trying to sleep either by night or day. A new baby is a particular difficulty especially in the first year of life.
Socioeconomic deprivation is associated with poorer outcomes for many medical conditions. The scale of the problem for those with type one diabetes is stark. A UK study has shown that type ones are diagnosed with sight threatening diabetic retinopathy three times as commonly as those in the least deprived areas.
This could be due to many reasons. Food intake, attendance at clinics, care over injections, education, stress, leisure activities and support. It does point to the fact that changing what you do can make a substantial difference to health outcomes. 80% of the money spent on diabetes is for treating the complications of diabetes rather than on prevention.
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