Shakespeare was quite a fan of sleep, saying among other things that it “knits up the ‘raveled sleeve of care.’” And modern researchers are inclined to agree, saying that regular sufficient sleep reduces many health risks.
Unfortunately, Americans like to burn the candle at both ends, and sleep is often given low priority, especially by adolescents who are probably “among the most sleep-deprived segment of the population,” said the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases in a recent blog post, adding that “the sleep routines that they develop at that age set them on a trajectory of not prioritizing sleep as a pillar of health.”
Insufficient, irregular and interrupted sleep are associated with insulin resistance, prediabetes and diabetes and have a significant impact on glucose tolerance. Healthy volunteers, for example, forced to an inconsistent sleep schedule show a decrease in glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity. If a person has prediabetes then poor sleep will worsen that condition.
That could be important, since the Centers for Disease Control estimate that one in three Americans have prediabetes, and 84 percent of those don’t know they have it. But you don’t need to lose sleep over it; check out our free guidebooks that can help you understand more about blood glucose and insulin and what they have to do with diabetes.
