Insufficient and excessive sleep can damage blood vessels in diabetic patients

Impoverished sleep is known to escalate the risk of diabetes complications, but can too much sleep be harmful? In diabetic patients, both too little and too much sleep can damage petite blood vessels, researchers say.

Microvascular complications are common, long-term problems associated with diabetes that affect the petite blood vessels. These complications typically include retinopathy (damage to the blood vessels of the eye), nephropathy (damage to the blood vessels of the kidney), and neuropathy (damage to the nerves).

In a up-to-date study, researchers examined the association between sleep duration and microvascular disease in people with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes. They found that miniature sleep duration was associated with a 2.6-fold higher risk of microvascular disease, while long sleep duration was associated with a 2.3-fold higher risk of the same condition.

Researchers monitored the sleep duration of about 400 people with type 2 diabetes. They defined miniature sleep as less than seven hours and long sleep as nine hours or more. They found that about 12% of patients experienced miniature sleep, while 28% had medium-long sleep.

The study found that 38% of short-sleep people and 31% of long-sleep people showed signs of damage to petite blood vessels, underscoring the crucial impact of both insufficient and excessive sleep on vascular health in people with diabetes.

In addition, they noted that risk microvascular complications escalate with age. For example, people with diabetes over the age of 62 who sleep little have a 5.7 times greater risk of developing petite blood vessel disease.

“In patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes, both miniature and long sleep duration are associated with an increased incidence of microvascular disease compared with optimal nighttime sleep duration. Age strengthens the association between miniature sleep duration and microvascular disease, suggesting increased susceptibility among older adults,” the researchers said. he wrote.

The study results will be presented at this year’s annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes, to be held in September in Madrid.

The researchers caution that the results should be considered preliminary until they are published in a peer-reviewed journal. Further research is needed to understand the impact of penniless sleep on diabetes.

“Lifestyle changes in patients with type 2 diabetes may include sleep interventions. However, further research is needed to establish the role of sleep duration and quality in these patients,” they added.