Sleeping early every evening and sleeping enough would help regulate blood sugar, according to a new study.
- An insufficient sleep period and late fall asleep are associated with increased glycemic variability in adults.
- However, stabilization of blood sugar is essential to remain healthy, in particular preventing the complications of diabetes.
- To stabilize blood sugar, the researchers advise to have a sufficient sleep time and to favor an early falling asleep.
To help regularize your blood sugar, get into the habit of going to bed early and avoiding too short nights. A Chinese study, published in the journal Jama Network Open On March 5, 2025, showed a link between sleep habits and the regulation of the blood glucose levels.
More variable blood sugar with short nights and late falling asleep
To better understand the influence of sleep on the control of blood sugar, the researchers brought together 1,156 participants aged 46 to 83 years old living in the Chinese province of Guangdong. The volunteers answered several questionnaires on their sleep and brought a continuous glucose surveillance device for 14 consecutive days. The latter recorded all the fluctuations in their blood sugar in real time.
The team has identified 4 types of night habits: severe inadequate sleep (4.7 to 4.1 hours per night), moderate inadequate sleep (6.0 to 5.5 hours), light inadequate sleep (7.2 to 6.8 hours) and adequate sleep (8.4 to 8.0 hours). The researchers also distinguished people who fell asleep early from those who went to bed late.
An increase in fluctuations in blood sugar in knockout
Analysis of all data revealed that the members of the “seriously inadequate” group presented an increase in glycemic variability by 2.87 % and an increase of 0.06 mmol/L of the average daily fluctuations in blood sugar compared to those who had sufficient sleep.
In addition, the Talit-Tard displayed an increase in glycemic variability of 1.18 % and an increase of 0.02 mmol/L of the average daily fluctuations in blood sugar.
Another discovery: the volunteers who fell asleep late and who had short nights recorded more significant fluctuations in blood sugar than the others.
Diabetes: sleeping early would help regulate blood sugar
All of these results lead researchers to recommend diabetics to pay attention to their quality and amount of sleep.
“In the current study, we found that the participants presenting this combined phenotype (falling asleep late and sleeping little, note) presented the greatest glycemic variability. This suggests that the time and duration of falling asleep could be promising factors to improve the metabolism of glucose of glucose“write the authors in their article. “These factors could serve as inexpensive and not invasive interventions in the primary prevention of diabetes. In addition, our results suggest that the advantages of an early bedtime for glycemic control are solid and independent of the duration of sleep. This suggests that people who already have an adequate sleep duration, or those who are subject to a restriction of sleep time, could improve glycemic regulation Adopting an hour of earlier sleep “they conclude.
