New research, published online in BMJ Open: Diabetes Research and Care, has found that people with type 2 diabetes who go to bed late and get up late tend to exercise less, making them vulnerable to potential diabetic complications.
Study researcher Dr. Joseph Henson of the University of Leicester, UK, said it is important for people with type 2 diabetes to understand how sleep time can affect their physical activity.
“There is a massive need for large-scale interventions to help people with diabetes initiate, maintain, and achieve the benefits of an active lifestyle,” he explained. “For people who prefer to go to bed later and get up later, this is even more important, with our research showing that night owls exercise 56% less than their early bird counterparts.”
Dr. Henson said exercise is important for everyone, including diabetics, because it helps maintain healthy body weight and blood pressure, and more importantly, it reduces the risk of heart disease.
The current looked at more than 600 patients with type 2 diabetes who wore tracking devices for a week in order to record their time and intensity of physical activity, sleeping time, and resting time.
The researchers found that 23% of the participants went to bed late and got up late, 25% went to sleep and rose early, and 52% did neither.
Researcher Dr. Alex Rowlands of the University of South Australia said, “The link between later sleep times and physical activity is clear: go to bed late and you’re less likely to be active.” “For someone with diabetes, this is valuable information that could help get them back on a path to good health.” Dr. Rowlands added.
