CANBERRA (Dispatches) -- New studies have revealed that a troubled sleep may be linked with risk factors for type 2 diabetes.
University of South Australia researchers examined the association of different aspects of sleep, and risk factors for diabetes, and discovered a connection between those who had troubled sleep and those who were at risk of type 2 diabetes.
Having assessed more than 1000 Australian adults* with a median age of 44.8 years, they examined a range of sleep characteristics: self-report trouble sleeping, duration, timing, efficiency, and day-to-day sleep length variability.
The researchers reported that people who had trouble sleeping were on average more likely to have indicators of poor cardiometabolic health -- inflammatory markers, cholesterol and body weight -- which can contribute to type 2 diabetes.
The study indicates that it is important to think about sleep as a whole, and not just as one aspect.
In Australia, almost one million adults have type 2 diabetes. Globally, type 2 diabetes affects more than 422 million people.