SLEEP AND DIABETES

It is often said that the most satisfying things are free in life, Sleep, is one of them. It is something that is every one of us needs to rejuvenate our mind and our bodies. It is this very act that improves the quality of life.

But to improve the quality of life, financially or to simply have more time to ourselves, we have started to cut down on our sleeping hours. Our body systems require sleep of good quantity as well as quality, for their proper functioning.

But our work and our education, not to mention social media has made a dent so big in our sleep cycles that it is wreaking havoc on our systems.

Have you ever wondered why your productivity and energy levels go down when you couldn’t catch a good night’s sleep the previous night? And the ill-effects stop at just hampered productivity or are there any graver repercussions?

So, let’s dive straight into how sleep or rather lack thereof can cause one of the most menacing metabolic conditions ever faced by humanity, i.e. Diabetes. As for our readers, who may be unaware of this condition, let me catch you up to speed with Diabetes.

Diabetes or Diabetes Mellitus is a condition that decreases your insulin sensitivity, thereby making it almost impossible for the body to use Glucose as energy. Hence this “energy” stays put in the blood of the patient and can cause myriad of health problems, even death.

Now that we’ve caught up, let’s move ahead and discuss as to how sleeping at aberrant times or having disturbed sleep cycles can cause diabetes? We know that when we hit the sack at night, our body produces and releases the necessary hormones for the body’s tissues and the muscles to recover, of the which the most crucial are Testosterone, Growth Hormone and its antagonist, Insulin.

Insulin takes care of the transportation of blood glucose from our blood to our muscles, it is this very transport of glucose AKA energy that recovers our muscles and helps us feel energized throughout the day. But if you don’t let yourself sleep or you sleep very late at night, this whole act done by Insulin falls short and onsets a chain of effect on our hormones, lowering down testosterone and increasing cortisol at the same time.

This Sleep Debt causes an enormous spike in Cortisol AKA Stress Hormone and it causes muscles to shrink or atrophy because it creates a catabolic environment in the body. Since our muscles would shrink under such conditions, all the glucose from the food that we consume lands up and stays put in the blood, causing fasting blood sugar which is a precursor to diabetes.

Since the individual would feel tired or fatigued the day after, he/she would succumb to the pressure of work and would supplement their diet with Cigarettes, Tea and Coffee to get them pumping and raring to go, this in turn further increases Cortisol, adding fuel to the fire, making the situation worse.

Even if an individual is not consuming such stimulants or stimulant containing beverages, they would fall for the next best thing, i.e. Food. Eating food gives us energy and you would likely end up eating more food to feel charged or ecstatic to combat the lack of sleep from the previous night. Since you are eating more, there are high chances that you would gain weight and fat (assuming this person does not workout), he/she would end up being even more insulin resistance that they were to begin with. This traps the individual in a vicious cycle and makes them diabetic.

Sleep deprivation is far too common these days because of jobs, travelling, education and these are just a puny scratch to the surface. Doctors, Nurses working night shifts, tele callers working in call centres, students studying late at night or even worse, staying up late playing videogames and watching tv are delaying the sleep onset further. Elder staying up late at night because they slept during the daytime or they are simply staying awake to spend more time with their kids.

All these situations build up and take a toll on the body, causing chronic insulin insensitivity, ultimately leading to weight gain, depression, sleep apenia. All these conditions keep an individual restless and awake at night causing more harm to an already dire situation.

In conclusion, it can be said that sleep is one of the most important phases of our day, rather our entire life. An average Joe ends up sleeping 1/3rd of his life away by sleeping. And it is necessary too, as we established at the beginning of this article, put in lesser number in the sleep cycle, won’t do any of us, any good.

As they say, an apple a day keep the doctor away, well, a healthy sleep cycle would keep the doctors out of business.

Just kidding, Sleep Tight, Folks.