Researchers to teens: Get to bed—it's good for your blood sugar
If you're 18, getting a bit more sleep could matter more than you think. New research from the University of Copenhagen and COPSAC shows that even in healthy young people, longer nights of sleep are linked to more stable blood sugar levels the next day. What's more, the relationship appears to go both ways. The findings suggest that sleep may play an important role in our metabolism long before conditions such as diabetes develop.
edited by Lisa Lock , reviewed by Andrew Zinin
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"Go to bed!"—it's a phrase most teenagers have heard countless times. For many young people, bedtime is easily pushed aside in favor of Netflix, gaming or just another scroll on their phone. Most already know that sleep is important for concentration, mood and learning. Now, there's new evidence that it matters for metabolic health, too.
A new study from the University of Copenhagen and the COPSAC research unit at Herlev and Gentofte Hospital published in the journal SLEEP shows that longer sleep is associated with fewer fluctuations in blood sugar—even among healthy 18-year-olds. Large swings in blood sugar can increase inflammation and place strain on metabolism, potentially contributing over time to conditions such as obesity and diabetes.
The link between sleep and metabolic diseases is not new. However, most previous studies have focused on middle-aged adults or individuals at increased risk of diabetes.