Brigham researchers have found that middle aged to older adults with inconsistent sleep had a heightened risk of developing type 2 diabetes compared to those with more consistent sleep patterns.
A study led by investigators at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, analyzed sleep patterns over the course of 7 nights and then followed participants for more than seven years.
The researchers discovered that irregular sleep durations were associated with increased risk of diabetes, with individuals with the greatest irregular patterns have a 34 percent higher type 2 diabetes risk than their counterparts.
The findings, published in Diabetes Care, suggest the importance of regular sleep for diabetes prevention.
“Our study identified a modifiable lifestyle factor that can help lower the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Our findings underscore the importance of consistent sleep patterns as a strategy to reduce type 2 diabetes,” said lead author Sina Kianersi, PhD, a research fellow in the Channing Division of Network Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Type 2 diabetes affects close to half a billion people worldwide and is one of the top 10 leading causes of death and disability. The number of people with type 2 diabetes is expected to more than double to 1.3 billion by 2050. This dire situation highlights the need for innovative strategies for diabetes prevention.
The new study analyzed accelerometry data from more than 84,000 participants in the UK Biobank Study to investigate any possible association between sleep and type 2 diabetes.
Participants were an average age of 62 years (57 percent female, 97 percent white) and were initially free of diabetes. They wore accelerometers, devices like watches that monitor movement, for seven nights.
The participants were followed for approximately 7.5 years, tracking diabetes development mostly through medical records.
The study set out to investigate two key questions. First, to discover whether irregular sleep durations may promote diabetes development through circadian disruption and sleep disturbances.
Second, to explore whether this association varies across genetic predispositions to diabetes.
The investigators found that more irregular sleep duration was associated with higher diabetes risk after adjusting for a wide range of risk factors.
This association was more pronounced in individuals with longer sleep duration and lower polygenic risk score for diabetes.
The data revealed that compared to participants with regular sleep patterns, those with irregular sleep (where day-to-day sleep duration varied by more than 60 minutes on average) had a 34 percent higher risk of developing diabetes.
The risk decreased, yet persisted, even after accounting for lifestyle, co-morbidities, family history of diabetes, and obesity indicators.
There were some study limitations. Certain lifestyle information used in the research was collected up to five years before the accelerometer study began.
