Lack of Sleep Increases Blood Sugar

Posted on by Jesse Santiano, M.D.

Last month, I gave a glucometer to a family member, and she had some interesting observations. AS reports,

What I noted with my blood testing in the morning (7am) is that when I sleep for 6.5 hrs or less, my reading is 111 mg/dL. That’s true even if I don’t eat carbs (aside the small amount in apples and veg) for my supper the night before.

If I had 7.5-8 hrs sleep, it’s in the 90s.

If I have consecutive good night sleep, it’s in the 80s. Results are in mg/dl.

According to the CDC,

 A fasting blood sugar level of 99 mg/dL or lower is normal.

100 to 125 mg/dL indicates you have prediabetes, and 126 mg/dL or higher indicates you have diabetes.

Source: https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/basics/getting-tested.html

The reason is that lack of sleep stresses the body, and the adrenals secrete more cortisol and epinephrine. Both hormones increase blood sugar. [1]

In my experience, my one-hour and two-hour after-meal blood sugars were also higher when I didn’t get enough sleep.

If she had a fasting blood sugar in a laboratory and had less than 6.5 hours of sleep the night before, she might be mistakenly diagnosed with prediabetes.

Her blood pressure would have been higher than usual if she had measured them, too.

The key takeaway from this anecdote is the need for adequate sleep to control blood sugar.

The other thing is to start a diary of blood sugar readings, which includes the length of sleep and what foods were eaten if you also measure the one-hour or two-hour after-meal blood sugars.

That way, you can make lifestyle changes to improve your health.

If you work nights, you may want to read this: Fasting to Lower Night Shift Heart Attack Risk

Sleeping Girl By Domenico Fetti – Web Gallery of Art: Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15416603

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Reference:

  1. Hirotsu C, Tufik S, Andersen ML. Interactions between sleep, stress, and metabolism: From physiological to pathological conditions. Sleep Sci. 2015 Nov;8(3):143-52. doi: 10.1016/j.slsci.2015.09.002. Epub 2015 Sep 28. PMID: 26779321; PMCID: PMC4688585.

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