Balance in sleep , can prevent from diabetes

TOO much or too little sleepexposes you to a greaterrisk of developing type-2 diabetes. The risk is 250 per cent higher for people who sleep less than seven hours or more than eight hours at night, Laval University researchers concluded after analysing the habits of 276 people over a sixyear period. Type-2 diabetes symptoms are increased thirst and frequent urination, extreme hunger, weight loss, fatigue, blurred vision, slow healing sores and frequent infections.

Researchers determined that over this time span, approximately 20 per cent of those with long and short sleep duration developed type-2 diabetes as against only seven per cent of subjects who were average sleepers. Even when the effect attributable to differences in body mass were taken into account, the risk of diabetes and insulin resistance was still twice as high among those with longer and shorter sleep duration than average sleepers.

The researchers also point out that diabetes is not the only risk associated with sleep duration. A growing number of studies have shed light on a similar relationship between sleep and obesity, cardiovascular disease and overall mortality. The authors observed that among adults, between seven and eight hours of night time sleep seems to be ideal to protect against common diseases and premature death, said a Laval release.

However, it seems that fewer and fewer people sleep the optimum number of hours.