Falling short on sleep? New research reported this week at a meeting of the American Heart Association suggests you may be adding to your risk of developing diabetes.

The study, led by University of Buffalo researcher Lisa Rafalson, PhD, compared people who slept less than six hours a night with those who racked up six to eight hours. The short sleepers were more than four and a half times more likely to have imparied fasting glucose, a condition that can lead to type 2 diabetes.

Why remains an open question. “While previous studies have suggested that there may be many genes that each have a very small effect on the risk of diabetes, there is no known genetic predisposition to sleep disturbances that could explain our study’s results,” Rafalson said. Her guess: pathways that link hormone production and the nervous system may provide the link between sleep and fasting glucose.

With an epidemic of type 2 diabetes underway, researchers are scrambling to understand what contributes to individual risk–and how to prevent the disease from progression. One part of the prescription, these latest findings suggest, may be simply getting a good night’s sleep.

© 2009 PDQhealth

Tags: fasting glucose, sleep, type 2 diabetes