Are you a night owl who loves staying up late and sleeping in? New research from Brigham and Women’s Hospital suggests this habit, known as an “evening chronotype,” might increase your risk of developing diabetes.
The study, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, highlights the health implications of our sleep-wake patterns.
Lifestyle Factors and Diabetes Risk
The research involved analyzing data from 63,676 female nurses, focusing on their sleep habits, lifestyle choices, and diabetes status. About 11% identified as definite evening types, while 35% were definite morning types.
The rest fell into an intermediate category. Notably, those with an evening chronotype had a 72% increased risk of diabetes before accounting for lifestyle factors. This risk dropped to 19% after considering lifestyle choices but remained significant.
The study found that evening types often had less healthy lifestyles. They were more likely to drink more alcohol, follow a lower-quality diet, sleep fewer hours, smoke, and have unhealthy weight and exercise habits.
These factors partly explained the link between being a night owl and the increased risk of diabetes.
Interestingly, the increased diabetes risk was only seen in nurses working daytime shifts, not those on night shifts. This mismatch between natural sleep preferences and work schedules could contribute to health risks.
Looking Ahead: Broader Implications and Future Research
While the study focused on white female nurses, its findings raise questions applicable to broader populations. The researchers plan to explore the genetic aspects of chronotype and its relation to other diseases, including cardiovascular conditions.
The goal is to understand whether there’s a direct cause-and-effect relationship between sleep patterns and health risks.
If proven, doctors could personalize prevention strategies based on patients’ chronotypes, potentially reducing the risk of diabetes and other diseases linked to late sleeping habits.
If you care about diabetes, please read studies about Potatoes: friend or foe in the battle against diabetes? and findings of This blood pressure drug may protect kidney health in people with diabetes.
For more information about health, please see recent studies that Mediterranean diet can reduce belly fat much better, and Keto diet could help control body weight and blood sugar in diabetes.
The research findings can be found in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
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