People who sleep less than six hours a night may be three times more likely to develop a condition which leads to diabetes and heart disease, according to researchers at the University of Warwick.
A study by a team of researchers from Warwick Medical School and the State University of New York at Buffalo has found short sleep duration is associated with an elevated risk of a pre-diabetic state, known as incident-impaired fasting glycaemia (IFG).
IFG means that your body isn't able to regulate glucose as efficiently as it should. People with IFG have a greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes and are at an increased risk of heart disease and stroke.
The study has just been published in the Annals of Epidemiology journal. The researchers looked at six years of data from 1,455 participants in the Western New York Health Study.
All participants were aged between 35 and 79 years old and all completed a clinical examination that included measures of resting blood pressure, height and weight. They also completed questionnaires about their general health and wellbeing and sleeping patterns.
Lead author at Warwick Medical School Dr Saverio Stranges said: "We found that short sleep, less than six hours, was associated with a significant, three-fold increased likelihood of developing IFG, compared to people who got an average of six to eight hours sleep a night."
This study is the first to look at the association between sleep duration and IFG. Dr Stranges said there were a number of ways in which sleep loss could lead to disordered glucose metabolism.