This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Increasing sleep improves insulin levels in children
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Increasing sleep duration may be effective for improving risk markers for type 2 diabetes, including insulin levels, insulin resistance and all measures of body size and fatness, in school-aged children, according to a study.
Alicia R. Rudnicka, PhD, of the Population Health Research Institute at St. George’s, University of London, and colleagues evaluated data from the Child Heart and Health Study in England (CHASE) on 4,525 children (mean age, 10 years) to determine the associations between self-reported sleep duration and risk markers of type 2 diabetes.
Participants completed questionnaires reporting on sleeping habits, specifically what time they go to bed and wake up on school days. Sleep duration was defined as the difference between the two times. On a school day, the mean sleep duration was 10.5 hours per night.
Sleep duration was inversely related to all measures of body size and fatness. Longer sleep duration was associated with shorter height and lower body weight, fat-free mass, levels of fat mass index and skinfold thickness.
Insulin levels were nearly 3% lower with each extra hour of sleep; similar associations were found for insulin resistance.
The study “also shows strong inverse associations between reported sleep duration and adiposity (including detailed measures of body fatness confirming findings), confirming findings from earlier studies,” the researchers wrote.
“Given the rising prevalence of diabetes worldwide and especially in low- to middle-income countries, we believe our findings will help motivate further simple, pragmatic trials in this area,” they wrote. – by Amber Cox
Disclosures: The authors report no relevant financial disclosures.
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts