Teens who miss sleep are more likely to set their metabolism in motion for insulin resistance.
Based on a pilot study of 10 lean and obese adolescents, sleep duration was the primary predictor of abnormal 90-minute glucose values on oral glucose tolerance tests, Dr. Dorit Koren and her colleagues will report at the annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies in Minneapolis. The finding was independent of the teens’ body weights.
The University of Chicago researchers wrote in their late-breaking abstract that the pilot study is "the first to our knowledge to examine potential interrelationships between home sleep duration and dynamic insulin and glucose homeostasis in adolescents." Previous studies in children have associated short sleep with insulin resistance, but have not examined the relationship between home sleep and postprandial glucose metabolism. Studies in adults have linked type 2 diabetes risks and experimental sleep restriction to acute insulin resistance and glucose intolerance.
For the study, the 13- to 18-year-olds had oral glucose tolerance tests, evaluations of body weight, an overnight polysomnogram, and home sleep assessments based on actigraphy and sleep diaries. Sleep duration was linearly correlated with 90-minute oral glucose tolerance test results (r = –0.66, P = .036). There were trends toward negative associations between home sleep duration, obesity, and insulin resistance.
The study was supported by a grant from the National Center for Research Resources and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Institutes of Health.