Good night’s rest helps keeps blood sugar levels down

By Tom Campbell via SWNS

A good night's sleep helps keep blood sugar levels down, according to a new study.

Staying up late and sleeping badly could undermine the body's ability to control blood sugar levels, say scientists.

High blood sugar has been associated with a number of serious health conditions, including diabetes which affects around 3.9 million people in the UK.

The quality of a person's diet and sleep, as well as the amount of exercise they do, are fundamental to achieving a healthy lifestyle.

Sleep disorders in particular often occur alongside other conditions and are therefore a good way of measuring a person's overall health.

Yet how sleep affects healthy people's ability to control their blood sugar levels has received relatively little attention.

Now, researchers in Sweden have found going to bed at the right time and getting a good sleep could help keep the body's sugar ,or glucose levels, in check.

"While there have been numerous large prospective cohort studies focused on the relationship between self-reported sleep, disease and wellbeing, objective data on sleep and postprandial glucose metabolism typically comes from small studies conducted in tightly controlled settings and in specific population subgroups such as those suffering sleep disturbances owing to pregnancy, sleep apnea, depression, obesity or diabetes,"said study author Professor Paul Franks, of Lund University.

"Because of this, there is a need for greater evidence of the effects of sleep on glucose metabolism in healthy individuals."

Data on 953 healthy adults from the UK and United States which had been collected over a two week period as part of PREDICT1, the world's largest nutrition study, was analyzed by the researchers.

During the study, participants were asked to have 'test meals', with a known amount of carbohydrates, fat, protein and fiber.

A continuous glucose monitoring device (CGM) was used to record their blood sugar every 15-minutes for the entire duration of the study.

Participants were also asked to wear sensors at night, so the researchers could track their movements while sleeping.

People's blood sugar was not affected by how much sleep they got until breakfast was taken into account, the researchers found.

Those who got a good rest had lower blood sugar levels after eating a breakfast high in carbohydrates and fat compared to others.

This suggests getting a good night's rest could improve the body's ability to control blood sugar levels.

A better quality of sleep, with fewer disturbances during the night, was linked with lower blood sugar levels, regardless of what participants had for breakfast.

Likewise what time people went to bed was also a determining factor, with those burning the midnight oil recording higher blood sugar levels.

"Our data suggest that sleep duration, efficiency and midpoint are important determinants of postprandial glycemic control at a population level, while illustrating that to optimize sleep recommendations it is likely necessary to tailor these to the individual," Frank said.

"These findings underscore the importance of sleep in regulating metabolic health, and a combination of both general and more personalized sleep guidelines is likely to be necessary to enable patients to minimize their risk of metabolic disease."

Their findings could help people with diabetes who struggle to keep their blood sugar levels in check.

"This study's findings may inform lifestyle strategies to improve postprandial blood glucose levels, focusing on earlier bedtime routines and maximizing high-quality uninterrupted sleep," Frank said.

"A combination of both generalized and more personalized sleep guidelines is likely required to ensure optimal metabolic health per se and maximize the effectiveness of guidelines for diabetes prevention."

The findings were published in the journal Diabetologia.