The beginning of November was marked by the week of obesity, and on this occasion, new work comes to demonstrate how heavy the consequences of a bad night’s sleep can be on insensitivity to insulin, which induces obesity.
At Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, USA, researchers have carried out work to compare how poor quality or sleep deprivation and high fat diets affect our insulin sensitivity, and by consequently, obesity since it is strongly linked to it.
This work led to the conclusion that a single bad night’s sleep has serious consequences, since it has the same negative effect on insulin sensitivity as a high-fat diet adopted for six months. » When the body becomes less sensitive to insulin (ie “insulin resistant”) it is forced to produce more to keep blood sugar levels stable. This can eventually lead to type 2 diabetes, a condition that prevents insulin in the body from responding properly, and which results in too much sugar in the blood. Diabetes is associated with a series of serious complications, including heart disease. Obese individuals are more likely to develop insulin resistance and consequently to develop diabetes can we read in the study published on Obesity.org.
» Our study suggests that one night of total sleep deprivation can be as detrimental to insulin sensitivity as six months of a very high-fat diet. This research demonstrates the importance of good sleep in maintaining blood sugar levels and reducing the risk of metabolic diseases such as obesity and diabetes commented Doctor Broussard, co-author of this work.
The combination of sleep deprivation with a fatty diet can therefore, in fact, have adverse health consequences. As a reminder, for an adult, the ideal sleep duration is between 7 and 9 a.m. Find here the Finnish study which gives the ideal sleep durations according to the different age groups.
Sources: sciencedaily, slate, obesity