Sleep Could Be Key to Preventing Type 2 Diabetes Essay

Submitted By kaitrose29
Words: 326
Pages: 2

Sleep Could Be Key To Preventing Type 2 Diabetes
Summary: A researcher, Peter Liu, and his colleagues at Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute tested men with constant sleep restrictions during the week. They found that the men’s ability to clear blood sugar or glucose from their bloodstream significantly improved after three nights of “catch-up” sleep during the weekend. To confirm the men's reported sleep times, the researchers had them each wear an actigraph device on their wrist that monitored when they were asleep and when they were awake. The study found that extending hours of sleep can improve the body’s use of insulin, therefore reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes in adult men. Type 2 diabetes can develop when the body cannot use the insulin it produces or when the body doesn’t produce enough insulin. Even though the cause of it isn’t exactly known a recent public study suggests the risk may be linked to the secretion of melatonin that occurs during sleep.

Reflection: I think that the experiment Peter Liu and his colleagues at Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute performed was very out of the ordinary but very significant. The whole procedure was very structured, thought out and organized. It seems to make sense that the secretion of melatonin during sleep could be linked to the risk of getting type 2 diabetes. It’s crazy to think that it is the seventh leading cause of death in the United States. It affects nearly twenty six million Americans and