14 DAY TRIAL // According to the conclusions of a new study conducted by an international team of researchers, it would appear that poor sleep quality plays an important role in the development of metabolic disorders, including type II diabetes and obesity. The work appears to suggest that improving sleep quality may be an effective way of preventing and treating these conditions.
The research group was led by expert Sebastian M Schmid, who holds an appointment with the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Lübeck, in Germany, and is also a member of the Wellcome Trust – Medical Research Council's Institute of Metabolic Science.
Coauthors include Manfred Hallschmid, PhD, with the Helmholtz Center Munich at the University of Tübingen and the German Center for Diabetes Research, and Professor Bernd Schultes, MD, from the Swiss medical and Surgical Center, in Switzerland. Their work was published in the March 25 early online issue of the journal The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology.
The paper suggests that both insufficient and disturbed sleep can be associated with the development of metabolic disorders. More serious conditions, such as sleep apnea, are also thought to play a role in this connection. Sleep apnea is characterized by the collapse of the superior airways during sleep, leading to shortness of breath, and pauses in breathing that can last for dozens of seconds.
“Metabolic health, in addition to genetic predisposition, is largely dependent on behavioral factors such as dietary habits and physical activity. In the past few years, sleep loss as a disorder characterizing the 24-hour lifestyle of modern societies has increasingly been shown to represent an additional behavioral factor adversely affecting metabolic health,” the team writes in their journal entry.
Treating sleep disturbances therefore emerges as an important avenue of research when it comes to improving metabolic health in the general population. Cutting back on TV, computer, tablet and smartphone usage rates can contribute to improving sleep quality across the board, especially if done at least an hour before going to bed, PsychCentral reports.
“These findings open up new strategies for targeted interventions aimed at the present epidemic of the metabolic syndrome and related diseases. Ongoing and future studies will show whether interventions to improve sleep duration and quality can prevent or even reverse adverse metabolic traits,” the researchers explain.
This is definitely not the first study to highlight the adverse health effects of insufficient or poor sleep. Past studies have already demonstrated that lousy sleep can lead to an increased incidence of chronic illnesses, and to early mortality.