Resources:

Sleep OS Hormones → https://thelongevityvault.com/sleep-os/hormones/

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Does Short Sleep Impair Blood Sugar Control (Even with a Healthy Diet)

Many adults in midlife and beyond consistently sleep less than 7 hours, even while eating well and staying active. This episode reframes that pattern as a metabolic signal: chronic short sleep steadily lowers insulin sensitivity in muscle and liver, so the pancreas must work harder to keep glucose in range.

You’ll hear how this plays out in three groups—healthy adults, people with prediabetes, and “healthy but susceptible” adults with higher cardiometabolic risk—using data from large cohorts and a 6-week randomized sleep-restriction trial.

Key points

Large-scale data from ~247,000 UK adults show that sleeping under 6 hours per night raises type 2 diabetes risk over ~12 years, even after adjusting for diet quality, activity, BMI, blood pressure, and antidepressant use.

Mechanistically, short sleep lowers insulin sensitivity in muscle and liver; blood sugar may remain “normal” at first, but only because the pancreas increases insulin output to compensate.

Sleep duration emerges as a third modifiable pillar of diabetes prevention—alongside nutrition and physical activity.

Listen for: How chronic short sleep alters insulin and glucose dynamics; why prediabetes status amplify that effect; and which structural changes can realistically add 20–40 minutes of sleep in midlife and later life.

Read the full article: Does Short Sleep Impair Blood Sugar Control (Even with a Healthy Diet?)

Learn more inside Sleep OS Hormones → https://thelongevityvault.com/sleep-os/hormones/