KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Glucose plays a crucial role in energy production, and our blood glucose (sugar) levels fluctuate at night as part of the natural circadian rhythm.
- The link between sleep and overall health is deep-rooted, and quality sleep is essential for optimising insulin sensitivity and regulating blood glucose levels.
- Inadequate or poor quality sleep has been associated with the increased incidence of obesity and Type 2 diabetes, which develops after years of insulin resistance and elevated blood sugar levels.
- While the relationship between sleep and blood sugar is complex, getting enough high-quality sleep each night is critical for your health. This also requires that you minimise or prevent snoring.
The food we eat is broken down into glucose (a type of sugar) in the liver and used as fuel for all of the body’s processes, from the cellular level to providing energy for exercising. Maintaining healthy blood sugar levels is crucial to good health.
Did you know that sleep plays a major role in controlling blood sugar levels?
Sleeping can both increase and decrease blood sugar levels:
- Deep, restorative sleep reduces and stabilises blood sugar.
- Lack of sleep has been linked to higher blood sugar levels.
- Just a single night of disturbed sleep can increase insulin resistance.
Insulin resistance, which ultimately increases blood sugar, is a precursor to prediabetes. If not effectively managed and reversed, it will eventually transform into Type 2 diabetes. Understanding the risks is very important, alongside knowing how to promote better health. This includes healthier sleep.
Insulin Resistance – What Does it Mean?
The pancreas is an organ in the upper left of the abdomen. It produces insulin, which is a hormone that transports glucose (sugar) from the bloodstream to cells, where it is converted into energy. It also regulates the level of sugar in the bloodstream.
Chronically high blood glucose levels can cause chronically high insulin production.
Insulin resistance or dysregulation develops when the cells in the liver, muscles, and fat can no longer properly process or respond to insulin. As a result, glucose builds up in the bloodstream. The pancreas produces more insulin in response to this, but it has little to no impact on the glucose levels – causing even more insulin to be released into the bloodstream.
Excess glucose is taken from the bloodstream and stored in the liver and muscles. These, however, have only limited storage capacity, and when this is exhausted, glucose is converted into fat.
Fat cells trigger and worsen insulin resistance. The result is a snowballing effect and the problem continues to worsen – with insulin resistance driving fat accumulation, and fat causing higher insulin resistance.
This condition is diagnosed via a fasting blood test. Characteristic results show normal blood glucose levels and normal HbA1C with elevated fasting insulin levels. These can be mild, moderate, or severe.
How Does Insulin Resistance Impact Health?
Many people with insulin resistance have it for many years or even decades without knowing it. It can start at a young age, and even in people who are not overweight. Anyone can develop insulin resistance, but a lot who do are genetically predisposed to it; it’s seen more in people who have an immediate family member (parent/sibling) with diabetes. It’s also statistically more common in certain groups including people of European descent over age 40, and people of Maori, Asian, Middle Eastern or Pacific Islander descent aged over 30.
The condition often doesn’t cause obvious health issues until it has progressed to prediabetes or diabetes.
Insulin resistance increases the risk of:
- Becoming overweight or obese
- Developing prediabetes/Type 2 diabetes
- Elevated triglycerides (fat in the blood)
- Low levels of HDL (“good” cholesterol)
- High blood pressure (hypertension)
- Cardiovascular disease/heart attack/stroke
- Other metabolic disorders
- Depression
When insulin resistance occurs alongside hypertension and high cholesterol/triglycerides, it is called Metabolic Syndrome or Syndrome X.
What increases the likelihood of being insulin resistant?
- Having a parent or sibling with Type 2 diabetes
- Being overweight (especially if you carry fat around the waist)
- Lack of exercise/low levels of physical activity
- Having high blood pressure (generally over 130/90)
- Having high triglycerides and/or low HDL (“good”) cholesterol
- Having Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) (which may also be worsened by insulin resistance)
- Have symptoms of prediabetes/diabetes
- History of stroke
- Using certain medications (including steroids)
- History of gestational diabetes and/or giving birth to a high-birth-weight baby (over 4-4.5 kg)
Symptoms of insulin resistance can be vague. They may include: weight gain, extreme difficulty losing weight, fatigue and tiredness, increased thirst and/or urination, food cravings/increased appetite, skin tags, and in some people, episodes of reactive hypoglycaemia (low blood sugar) after eating a carbohydrate-rich meal.
Losing weight and exercising more are important for reversing insulin resistance.
Blood Sugar and Sleep – How Do They Influence Each Other?
Sleep and blood sugar are strongly linked. Blood sugar levels can be influenced by everything from age to the amount and timing of sleep, quality of sleep and sleep stage, and eating habits.
Cortisol is the “stress” hormone. It rises when one is sleep-deprived and this causes glucose levels to also rise. The time of day when one sleeps also impacts cortisol and insulin levels. Sleep deprivation also inhibits insulin sensitivity (how well the body responds to insulin in the blood). This affects glucose levels, increases inflammation, and impacts various other chemical processes in the body.
Your blood sugar level can promote or disrupt your sleep. Furthermore, sleep problems themselves can influence blood sugar levels.
Sleeping fewer than 6 hours each night doubles the risk of becoming insulin resistant. Not getting enough sleep is also linked with Type 2 diabetes, and experiencing increased glucose levels regardless of whether one has diabetes or not.
Scientists have found links between obstructive sleep apnea, impaired glucose tolerance, and higher fasting glucose levels. Moreover, disordered breathing during sleep (including snoring) has been associated with higher blood sugar levels.
For people with diabetes, sleeping poorly is linked with more difficulty controlling their blood sugar.
The Relationship Between Type 2 Diabetes, Sleep, and Snoring
Prediabetes is diagnosed when blood sugar levels are higher than the clinically normal range, but not high enough to diagnose diabetes. It usually arises after years of insulin resistance.
Type 2 Diabetes is an increasingly common, usually preventable blood sugar disorder affecting 5% of the NZ population. It develops when the body no longer responds to insulin and can’t process glucose. (Type 1 diabetes is an endocrine disorder that is usually diagnosed suddenly in children and young people. It occurs because the pancreas can’t produce insulin.)
Scientists have linked poor sleep quality and a lack of sleep with diabetes.
Sleeping habits can directly impact how efficiently the body’s cells respond to insulin. Inadequate or poor quality sleep also influences the production of other hormones which can also increase blood sugar levels. For example, staying up late at night drives the production of cortisol, disrupting the circadian rhythm and triggering insulin resistance.
Scientific studies have also found that habitual snoring is an independent risk factor for inhibited blood sugar regulation.
How Can I Reduce the Risks to Improve My Health?
- Try to exercise regularly: ideally, for at least 30 minutes on at least 5 days per week. Even just going for a short walk can make a real difference.
- Eat a balanced, nutrient-rich diet. Reduce your portion sizes and say no to sugar-laden or highly processed foods.
- Limit caffeine and moderate (or say no to) alcohol.
- If you are overweight, try to lose weight. Losing 5-10% of your body weight can help reverse insulin resistance. See your doctor for guidance.
- Optimise your sleep. Implement a sleep schedule – stick with it even on weekends – and positive sleep hygiene practices. If you snore or have sleep apnea, try using a snoring mouthpiece like ApneaRx.
- If you have sleep apnea, it’s very important that you see your doctor for proper diagnosis and ongoing treatment.
- See your doctor to check your blood glucose and fasting insulin levels. They can offer guidance to help you implement healthier lifestyle changes and even potentially reverse insulin resistance. The earlier you do this, the better. If these lifestyle changes (diet, exercise, and sleep optimisation) on their own don’t work, there are certain medications used for diabetes that may be suitable for treating insulin resistance and preventing it from transforming into diabetes, which is a much more serious issue for health and longevity. Your GP or a specialist endocrinologist will identify the best treatment strategy for you – it’s very important to not use medications to lose weight without proper medical approval and ongoing monitoring.
- If you are diabetic, you must look after yourself and closely follow your doctor’s recommendations regarding diet, exercise, and medication. Diabetes is a chronic medical condition and it requires lifelong management.
Optimise Sleep, Minimise Snoring – Use ApneaRx
Using the ApneaRx snoring mouthpiece is a convenient and budget-friendly way to help prevent snoring. It has also been clinically tested to manage the symptoms associated with mild to moderate sleep apnea for healthier breathing during sleep. It is among the most popular sleep apnea devices in NZ.
Getting better quality sleep, without breathing disruptions caused by snoring or sleep apnea, can make a dramatic difference to your health and well-being. It may improve and even help you reverse insulin resistance when you also implement the recommended lifestyle modifications such as a healthy diet, smaller portion sizes, and exercise. ApneaRx can also help people with diabetes achieve better sleep for more positive health outcomes.
Order ApneaRx today or take a closer look at how it works.
