The Bedroom Habit That's Good for Blood Sugar

Nothing feels more rejuvenating than a nice, deep sleep. But it turns out that quality sleep may also be pretty critical to your blood sugar.

Two separate sleep studies confirm it. In the studies, both the amount of sleep people got and the quality of their sleep had a significant impact on the risk of diabetes. In fact, good sleep bestowed as much as a threefold drop in the risk of type 2 diabetes.

Deep Sleep, Better Blood Sugar
Turns out that a particular kind of deep sleep -- called slow-wave sleep (SWS) -- may be essential to maintaining balanced blood sugar. When folks in a study were intentionally deprived of the deepest stages of SWS, they suffered a 25 percent drop in insulin sensitivity -- a marker of the body's ability to convert blood sugar into energy. The light sleeping also caused a 23 percent drop in glucose tolerance, another risk factor for diabetes. So even if you get a proper 8 hours of sleep, it may not be doing your blood sugar any favors if you're not sleeping soundly. (Related: Learn more about the risk factors for diabetes.)

More Is Not Better
And staying in bed longer isn't an ideal solution to poor sleep. Surprisingly, in another study, sleeping more than 8 hours a night actually increased diabetes risk threefold. Researchers think that overly long sleep may drop testosterone levels down to the point that it boosts weight gain, belly fat, insulin, and glucose levels -- all things that can nudge up a person's diabetes risk. So if you're tossing and turning, sleeping 10 hours instead of 8 isn't the way to go. You need to get rid of bedroom distractions, clear your head of your keep-me-up-at-night worries, and focus on getting a quality 6 to 8 hours of sleep every night. (Related: Get tips and tools for catching deeper ZZZs -- visit the Realage Sleep Better Center.)

How's your blood sugar? Take this quiz to find out.

RealAge Benefit

Reducing your risk of diabetes by losing excess weight can make your RealAge half a year younger for each year you have tight control of blood sugar and blood pressure. Take the RealAge Test!

References

Slow-wave sleep and the risk of type 2 diabetes in humans. Tasali, E. et al., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 2008 Jan 22;105(3):1044-1049.

Sleep duration as a risk factor for the development of type 2 diabetes. Yaggi, H. K. et al., Diabetes Care 2006 Mar;29(3):657-661.

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