Impact of insufficient sleep on dysregulated blood glucose control under standardised meal conditions

• Main Authors: Berry, S.E (Author), Chan, A.T (Author), Delahanty, L.M (Author), Drew, D.A (Author), Fernandez-Tajes, J. (Author), Franks, P.W (Author), Ordovas, J.M (Author), Segata, N. (Author), Spector, T.D (Author), Tsereteli, N. (Author), Valdes, A.M (Author), Vallat, R. (Author), Walker, M.P (Author), Wolf, J. (Author)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH 2022
• Subjects: actimetry; adolescent; Adolescent; adult; Adult; aged; Aged; area under the curve; Article; bedtime; blood; Blood Glucose; blood glucose monitoring; Breakfast; carbohydrate diet; clinical trial; controlled study; diet; Diet; diet therapy; female; Female; glucose; glucose blood level; glycemic control; Glycemic Control; glycemic index; Glycemic Index; human; human experiment; Humans; intervention study; lipid diet; low fat diet; male; Male; meal; Metabolic health; metabolism; middle aged; Middle Aged; multicenter study; normal human; Person-centring; physiology; Postprandial glucose; Postprandial Period; postprandial state; protein restriction; secondary analysis; Sleep; sleep deprivation; Sleep Deprivation; sleep efficiency; sleep quality; sleep time; young adult; Young Adult
• Online Access: View Fulltext in Publisher
• Physical Description: 10
• ISBN: 0012186X (ISSN)
• DOI: 10.1007/s00125-021-05608-y

Aims/hypothesis: Sleep, diet and exercise are fundamental to metabolic homeostasis. In this secondary analysis of a repeated measures, nutritional intervention study, we tested whether an individual’s sleep quality, duration and timing impact glycaemic response to a breakfast meal the following morning. Methods: Healthy adults’ data (N = 953 [41% twins]) were analysed from the PREDICT dietary intervention trial. Participants consumed isoenergetic standardised meals over 2 weeks in the clinic and at home. Actigraphy was used to assess sleep variables (duration, efficiency, timing) and continuous glucose monitors were used to measure glycaemic variation (>8000 meals). Results: Sleep variables were significantly associated with postprandial glycaemic control (2 h incremental AUC), at both between- and within-person levels. Sleep period time interacted with meal type, with a smaller effect of poor sleep on postprandial blood glucose levels when high-carbohydrate (low fat/protein) (pinteraction = 0.02) and high-fat (pinteraction = 0.03) breakfasts were consumed compared with a reference 75 g OGTT. Within-person sleep period time had a similar interaction (high carbohydrate: pinteraction = 0.001, high fat: pinteraction = 0.02). Within- and between-person sleep efficiency were significantly associated with lower postprandial blood glucose levels irrespective of meal type (both p < 0.03). Later sleep midpoint (time deviation from midnight) was found to be significantly associated with higher postprandial glucose, in both between-person and within-person comparisons (p = 0.035 and p = 0.051, respectively). Conclusions/interpretation: Poor sleep efficiency and later bedtime routines are associated with more pronounced postprandial glycaemic responses to breakfast the following morning. A person’s deviation from their usual sleep pattern was also associated with poorer postprandial glycaemic control. These findings underscore sleep as a modifiable, non-pharmacological therapeutic target for the optimal regulation of human metabolic health. Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT03479866. Graphical abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.] © 2021, The Author(s).