In February, researchers from the University of Chicago, MI, published the results of their study into the associations between sleep loss and diabetes in the journal Diabetologia.
The Chicago team found that after 3 nights of getting only 4 hours sleep, blood levels of fatty acids remain elevated, rather than peaking and receding overnight as they would normally. This elevated level of fatty acids between 4 am and 9 am reduces the ability of insulin to regulate blood sugars, the researchers explained.
Last December, Medical News Today reported on a study published in The Journal of Pediatrics that found chronic lack of sleep and sleep-related breathing problems each double the risk of a child being obese by the age of 15.
Lead author of that study, Prof. Karen Bonuck, from Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University in New York, NY, commented: