You may want to start sleeping well as a recent study suggests that lack of sleep may increase the risk for diabetes.
The University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and the University of Colorado Boulder researchers found that a lack of sufficient sleep reduces the body's sensitivity to insulin, impairing the ability to regulate blood sugar and increasing the risk of diabetes.
The new study adds to a growing body of information linking a lack of sleep to a range of ailments including obesity, metabolic syndrome, mood disorders, cognitive impairment and accidents.
Lead author Kenneth Wright said that when people get too little sleep, it leaves them awake at a time when their body clock is telling them they should be asleep and when they eat something in the morning, it impairs their ability to regulate their blood sugar levels.
Wright noted that if a person eats instead of sleeps during this time, it may alter the way the body responds to the food, impairing insulin sensitivity, he said.
Co-author Robert Eckel said that diabetes rates are skyrocketing nationwide. By 2050, he noted, as many as 33 percent of all Americans may have Type 2 diabetes.
The study is published in Current Biology.