Extra Sleep Over the Weekend can Prevent Type 2 Diabetes, reveals a study

Men who do not sleep enough during the weekdays but manage to do so at the weekend tend to reduce their risk of getting Type 2 Diabetes, revealed a US study.

Summarizing the study that was conducted at the Los Angeles Biomedical Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, its lead researcher, Peter Liu said, “We all know we need to get adequate sleep, but that is often impossible because of work demands and busy lifestyles. 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.”

With insulin sensitivity being a major factor in determining whether one suffers from Type 2 Diabetes in the long run, it was found that those who get adequate sleep are able to retrain their bodies so as to improve its use of insulin to clear blood sugar or glucose from their bloodstream.

For this study in particular, Liu’s team worked with researchers from the University of Sydney who analyzed data they received from 19 men who were non-diabetic but were struggling to get any sleep during weekdays, thanks to a busy schedule at work.

These 19 men slept for 2.3 hours extra over the weekend in order to make up for lost sleep,and which was confirmed in the study from the use of actigraph devices on their wrists. These findings were presented at The Endocrine Society’s 95th Annual Meeting which was held between 15-18 June in San Francisco.

With Type 2 Diabetes being the seventh largest reason for death in the United States, costing almost $174 billion, it affects almost 26 million Americans.