Losing Sleep Alters Metabolism, Study Finds

You might be able to function at work with as little as four or five hours of sleep. But your fat cells can’t.

And that can really matter when it comes to losing weight or preventing obesity and diabetes.

Here’s what researchers have found: not getting enough rest can alter your body’s fat calls, reducing their ability to respond to insulin – the hormone that regulates energy.

A new study, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, shows that the fat tissue in people who regularly sleep four hours every night was close to 30 percent less sensitive to insulin. Insulin helps the body process sugars.

“This eye-opening study helps cement the link between sleep and diabetes, and also suggests that adequate sleep, like diet and exercise, is one of the healthy habits we can adopt to prevent or treat diabetes,” said Josiane Broussard, the study’s first author and a fellow at the Cedars-Sinai Diabetes and Obesity Research Institute.

The study was conducted by Broussard, along with sleep researchers and specialists from the University of Chicago and the University of Chicago Kovler Diabetes Center. They focused on fat cells because they store energy for the body and help regulate appetite.

The study establishes a direct connection between sleep loss and the disruption of energy regulation, according to a news release from Cedars-Sinai. “…It also challenges the notion that the primary function of sleep is to rest the brain, indicating sleep also plays a role in metabolism,” the release states.

Study author and sleep specialist Esra Tasali said it’s very common for working adults to sleep four to five hours a night.

“Some people claim they can tolerate the cognitive effects of routine sleep deprivation,” said co-author Eve Van Cauter, director of the sleep, metabolism and health center at the University of Chicago in a separate news release. “In this small but thorough study, however, we found that seven out of seven subjects had a significant change in insulin sensitivity. They are not tolerating the metabolic consequences.”

How much sleep do you really need?

About seven to nine hours, according to the National Sleep Foundation.

Sources: University of Chicago Medical Center, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center

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