Catching up on lost sleep may help men lower their risk of developing type 2 diabetes, a new study has claimed.
Researchers from Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute (LA BioMed) found that insulin sensitivity, the body's ability to clear glucose (blood sugar) from the bloodstream, significantly improved after three nights of "catch-up sleep" on the weekend in men with long-term, weekday sleep restrictions.
"We all know we need to get adequate sleep, but that is often impossible because of work demands and busy lifestyles," said lead researcher Dr Peter Liu.
"Our study found extending the hours of sleep can improve the body's use of insulin, thereby reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes in adult men," Liu said.
Insulin is a hormone that regulates a person's blood sugar level. The body of a patient with type 2 diabetes cannot effectively use the insulin it produces, or it becomes "resistant" to insulin.
Retaining the body's sensitivity to insulin reduces the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.
"The good news is that by extending the hours they sleep, adult men - who over a long period of time do not get enough sleep during the working week - can still improve their insulin sensitivity," Liu said.
Liu and researchers from the University of Sydney in Australia studied 19 non-diabetic men, with an average age of 28.6 years, who for six months or longer (average, 5.1 years) self-reported inadequate sleep during the workweek.
On average, the men received only 6.2 hours of sleep each work night.
But they regularly caught up on their sleep on the weekends, sleeping an extra 37.4 per cent, or 2.3 hours, per night, the authors reported.
The researchers randomly assigned the men to two of three sleep conditions: (1) 10 hours of sleep, (2) six hours of sleep or (3) 10 hours in bed, in which noises during deep sleep aroused them into shallow sleep without waking them. The six hours of sleep tested persistent sleep restriction.
The study found that when the men slept 10 hours a night on each of three nights of catch-up sleep, their insulin sensitivity was much better than when they had persistent sleep restriction.
Their insulin resistance test score also improved (decreased) with sleep extension.
