Lack of sleep in many cases cause of diabetes and heart attacks

People with less than six hours of sleep are more prone to the metabolic syndrome
In the modern age of industrialized meritocracy, chronic sleep deprivation is becoming more common. Recent evidence has shown that chronic sleep deprivation is associated with adverse health outcomes. People who sleep less than six hours a night are more likely to develop diabetes and heart disease. In addition, the risk of getting a stroke increases due to a too short night's sleep.
Short sleepers are more likely to develop life-threatening and chronic conditions
Lack of sleep is the reason for many health problems such as high blood sugar, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and excessive levels of fats in the blood. The combination of such risk factors is known as metabolic syndrome. So-called "short sleepers" could later become ill as a result of the syndrome of life-threatening and chronic diseases, warned the main author of the new study. Jang Young Kim from the South Korean "Yonsei University".

Chronic lack of sleep for diabetes and infarction. Image: Edler von Rabenstein - fotolia

Relationship between total sleep duration and metabolic syndrome
Dr. Jang Young Kim and his team from Yonsei University in South Korea had medically accompanied 2,579 adults for more than two years in their study. They investigated the relationship between the total sleep duration and the onset of the metabolic syndrome. The participants were between 40 years and 70 years old and were not affected by the metabolic syndrome at the beginning of the study.

The physicians recorded the total sleep time of the subjects per night. It turned out that people who sleep less than six hours at night are more likely to develop the metabolic syndrome with a probability of 41 percent than people who sleep for six to eight hours.

After about two and a half years, 560 people had developed a metabolic syndrome. This corresponds to 22 percent of all participants. Too short sleep is also associated with an approximately 30 percent increased risk of high blood sugar and excess belly fat. People who sleep too little also have a 56 percent higher chance of getting high blood pressure.

People should plan for rest periods during their daily routine
Dr. Kristen Knutson, a sleep researcher at the University of Chicago, told Reuters that the results are in line with previous studies. These studies found an association between sleep duration, cardiovascular disease and the metabolic syndrome. The advantage of the new studies is that it is a prospective study that directly associates short sleep with the development of metabolic syndrome. It is important that the sleep duration was measured before the disease broke out in humans, explained the American physician.

In order to avoid the negative effects of too little sleep, it is important that people take a close look at their daily routine. Everyone should make sure that enough time is reserved for their personal schedule. Some aspects of the daily routine, such as work, school or child care, can not be changed, but other activities such as watching TV could be replaced by periods of rest. Knutson continues. It is still not known if the effects of too little sleep are reversed. Having a healthy lifestyle that contained enough sleep, a healthy diet and sufficient exercise would have a positive impact on human health, the physician added.