Get a Good Night's Sleep for Better Blood Sugar

Get a Good Night's Sleep for Better Blood Sugar (1:17)

Everyone knows that blood sugar levels are important to the health of diabetes patients. Research actually shows that type and quality of sleep affects blood sugar. Emergency medicine physician Darria Long-Gillespie, MD, explains how in this video.

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Hi, I'm Dr. Darria Long Gillespie. Nothing is more rejuvenating than a nice deep sleep, but it turns out that quality sleep may also be critical to controlling your blood sugar. Two separate sleep studies found that the amount and quality of sleep had a significant impact on diabetes risk. In fact quality sleep offered as much as three fold decrease and the risk of type two diabetes.

It turns out that a particular kind of deep sleep called slow-wave sleep may be essential to controlling blood sugar. When folks of the study were intentionally deprived of the deepest stages of sleep, they suffered a 25% loss of insulin sensitivity. Insulin sensitivity is a mark of your body's ability to convert blood sugar into energy.

Light sleeping also cause a 23% drop in glucose tolerance, another respecter for dietetics. Good quality sleep is just as important for people who already have diabetes. Studies have shown that people with type two diabetes who sleep well have lower blood sugar levels than those who don't. I'm Dr. Darria, for more ways to boost your health watch all our smarts tips.