Lack of sleep may increase IFG risk, study finds

NEW YORK Lack of beauty sleep may up one's risk of developing a condition that leads to diabetes and heart disease, a new study found.

Researchers from Warwick Medical School and the State University of New York at Buffalo examined six years of data from 1,455 participants in the Western New York Health Study, all of whom were between the ages of 35 and 79 years, and found that people who sleep less than six hours a night may be three times more likely to develop incident-impaired fasting glycaemia. IFG causes the body to be unable to regulate glucose as efficiently as it should.

Lead author at Warwick Medical School Dr. Saverio Stranges said: "We found that short sleep, less than six hours, was associated with a significant, threefold increased likelihood of developing IFG, compared [with] people who got an average of six to eight hours sleep a night. Previous studies have shown that short sleep duration results in a 28% increase in mean levels of the appetite stimulating hormone ghrelin so it can affect feeding behaviors. Other studies have also shown that a lack of sleep can decrease glucose tolerance and increases the production of cortisol, a hormone produced in response to stress."

Stranges added that, "more research is needed, but our study does suggest a very strong correlation between lack of sleep and Type 2 diabetes and heart disease."

The study was published in the journal Annals of Epidemiology.