A new Danish study warns that sleeping too little or too much may be harmful to your health, especially if you have diabetes.
The research team examined the sleep and health habits of 400 people who were recently diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and had experienced symptoms for more than 3 years.
Excessive sleep was found to lead to a 31% increase in microvascular damage in diabetics, which can lead to blindness and kidney failure, while not getting enough sleep could increase the damage by 38%.
The damage caused by irregular sleep patterns increases with age, with 12% of study participants not getting enough sleep, and 28% sleeping too much.
Microvascular problems can also lead to high blood pressure, which can lead to heart disease and stroke, according to the Express report.
The researchers highlighted: “Short and long sleep durations in patients with type 2 diabetes are associated with a higher prevalence of microvascular disease compared to ideal nighttime sleep duration. However, further studies are needed to determine the role of sleep duration and quality in these patients.”
The results will be presented at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) annual meeting in Madrid.