HHS HealthBeat (August 24, 2006)

Sleep and diabetes

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I'm Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

A study indicates that people who don't get the right amount of sleep have a higher risk of diabetes.

The study in Diabetes Care looked at data on about 1,700 men ages 40 to 70. It found that six to eight hours of sleep did best. Men who reported five to six hours of sleep had twice the risk of diabetes, and men who had more than eight hours had three times the risk. The work was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Klar Yaggi of Yale:

"Both short sleep duration and long sleep duration seemed to confer an increased risk for diabetes even after we adjusted for normal factors that can cause diabetes." (11 seconds)

It's not clear yet what's happening with too much sleep, but Yaggi says too little can upset balances that guard against diabetes.

Learn more at www.hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: May 7, 2011