Medical science is slowly drawing conclusions as to why so many people with diabetes have obstructive sleep apnea.  There has always been an understood relationship between obesity and sleep apnea due to fatty deposits in the neck reducing the size of the airway.  It has also been known that a large percentage of diabetics are obese.  However 70% of diabetics who are obese have obstructive sleep apnea compared to 40% of the obese, non-diabetic population.  Why the difference?

 

A study recently done at the University of Chicago Medical Center sheds great light on this question.  Researchers studied 9 healthy adults in a sleep lab environment.  Sleep lab technicians were able to monitor their sleep, and by evaluating their brain waves, were able to determine when these healthy adults were entering into slow wave sleep.  At the moment of transition between lighter sleep and slow wave sleep, the sleep technicians caused a sound to be emitted from speakers near the bed of the sleeping subjects causing them to revert to the lighter sleep stage.  By this method, and for 3 successive nights, the subjects were deprived of slow wave sleep.

 

At the conclusion of the study, blood samples were taken on each of the subjects.   8 out of 9 of the test subjects had blood glucose levels that showed a pre-diabetic condition as a result of slow wave sleep suppression for only 3 nights!  Sleep related breathing disorders, causing a repeated interruption of deeper levels of sleep, have a similar effect as the interruption of sleep by an emission of sound in the sleep lab.  To learn more about this fascinating study, go here.