Too much or too little sleep and increased death rates in patients with or without diabetes

New research published in Diabetologia (the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes [EASD]) reveals that too much or too little sleep in people with type 2 diabetes (T2D) is linked to sharply increased death rates, with the effect much larger than that found in the non-diabetic population.

The authors used data from 273,029 adults including 248,817 without diabetes and 24,212 with T2DM who participated in the US National Health Interview Survey from 2004 to 2013, and had linked mortality data up to the end of 2015. Sleep duration was measured using self-reporting, with participants asked "on average how long do you sleep each day" (5 hours or less, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 or more hours/day).

The relationship between sleep duration and mortality were investigated using computer modelling with adjustments for demographics, body mass index, lifestyle behaviours and clinical variables.

As expected, regardless of the amount of sleep compared, death rates were higher in people with T2D than those without (see table 2, full paper). The mortality rate for people with T2D with the 'ideal' level of 7 hours sleep was 138 per 10,000 person years, compared to 215 for less than 5 hours sleep and 364 for those with 10 hours of sleep or more.