New study published in diabetes care shows that people who sleep 9 or more hours per night are associated with higher risk of incident diabetes.

Using successive data waves spanning >20 years, researchers examined whether a change in sleep duration is associated with incident diabetes. The study consisted of four cycles of a five-year period, during which researchers recorded and calculated the changes in sleep duration for a total of 17,841 participants without diabetes. At the end of each cycle, incident diabetes was defined using 1) fasting glucose, 2) 75-g oral glucose tolerance test, and 3) glycated haemoglobin, in conjunction with diabetes medication and self-reported doctor diagnosis.

Results found that compared with the reference group of persistent 7-h sleepers, an increase of ≥2 h sleep per night was associated with a higher risk of incident diabetes (odds ratio 1.65 [95% CI 1.15, 2.37]) in analysis adjusted for age, sex, employment grade, and ethnic group. This association was partially attenuated by adjustment for BMI and change in weight (1.50 [1.04, 2.16]). An increased risk of incident diabetes was also seen in persistent short sleepers (average ≤5.5 h/night; 1.35 [1.04, 1.76]), but this evidence weakened on adjustment for BMI and change in weight (1.25 [0.96, 1.63]).

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