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April 27, 2005

Obesity, Diabetes and Sleep

Americans have been sleeping less over the past several decades. The median sleep time for American adults aged 40-79 was eight hours per night in 1959; it dropped to seven hours in 2002, with more than one in three sleeping fewer than seven hours.

Amoung the population of individuals who live sleep deprived lives, the incidence of obesity and diabetes is higher. What's interesting about the recent Forbes article on this topic is possible link between "mental health" and disease.

As for the link between sleep and diabetes, [Dr. Jennifer G. Robinson, a professor of medicine and epidemiology at the University of Iowa] added that depression could play a role because affected people sleep too much or too little. "We know that depression is related to inflammation, diabetes and heart disease," she said

Posted by Diabetologica at April 27, 2005 11:56 AM