Preliminary evidence of insulin resistance in young adults with impaired sleep

Abstract

Objective: Impaired sleep is associated with insulin resistance (IR), a precursor to type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), but is poorly understood in young adults. This cross-sectional study examined sleep characteristics, risk factors for T2DM, and IR in college students. Participants: Thirty-two college students (18–25 years) with either short sleep or poor quality sleep were assessed. Methods: Participants completed self-report measures of sleep and T2DM risk factors. One week of objective sleep was measured with wrist actigraphy. IR was calculated from fasting serum glucose and insulin concentrations. Results: The sample slept on average 6.6 hours/night, and over half had IR. Of those with IR, 44.4% had normal body mass index (BMI), 72% had normal fasting glucose concentrations, and all but one had T2DM risk test score indicating they were not at risk. Conclusions: IR was found in over half of participants; however, many typical T2DM risk factors were not present in those with IR.

Keywords:

• College
• insulin resistance
• sleep
• Type 2 diabetes mellitus
• young adult

Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge Dr. Anh Le for assistance with sample analysis and Nannan Zhang and Varsha Neelam for assistance with data management and analysis.

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors declare no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by funding from the Byrdine F. Lewis College of Nursing & Health Professions internal grant to the first author.