According to an article in the September 18 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, not sleeping enough may have a direct association with poor blood glucose control among the African-American population.

In keeping with the growing trend of Americans sleeping less, the study suggests that restricting sleep may affect the body's ability to process sugar into energy, thus lending towards the risk of developing diabetes. After noting that the participants in the study slept an average of six hours per night and compiling individual A1c results, the article states that "higher HBA1c levels were associated with lower sleep quality, less sleep, and a larger perceived sleep debt, even after researchers controlled for sex, age, BMI, complications, and use of insulin."

So what's the point here? Not sleeping enough may affect your body's ability to properly process glucose. Therefore, a lack of sleep may contribute to a potential diagnosis of diabetes for you.

"In our sample, sleep duration and quality were significant predictors of HbA1c, a key marker of glycemic control," the investigators wrote. "Combined with existing evidence linking sleep loss to increased diabetes risk, these data suggest that optimizing sleep duration and quality should be tested as an intervention to improve glucose control in patients with type 2 diabetes."

Our trend towards a sleepless society is not only making us a society of exhausted souls but may also be contributing to the diabetes epidemic that is sweeping the nation. Looks like another way to combat the development of diabetes is to make sure you catch as many catnaps as possible.

According to an article in the September 18 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, not sleeping enough may have a direct association with poor blood glucose control among the African-American population.