Consistently getting 7 to 8 hours of sleep may reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, according to new research from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Megu Baden, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Nutrition, and colleagues examined nearly eight years’ worth of data from 60,068 women aged 20 to 45 participating in the Nurses’ Health Study II. Over the course of the study, 1,797 of the participants developed type 2 diabetes.
The researchers found that women who consistently slept for 7 to 8 hours each night were at the lowest risk of developing type 2 diabetes, while those with 5 or fewer hours were at the highest risk, according to a March 30, 2020 article in The Health Mania.
More than thirty million people in the U.S. are currently living with diabetes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Unlike type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes can be managed or even stopped by changing diet and lifestyle habits.
Read The Health Mania article: You Can Prevent Diabetes by Sleeping for Eight Hours, Says a new Study