Life expectancy is not only affected by diet, blood pressure, or smoking. As a recent study by scientists from the United States and the United Kingdom has shown, two more factors should be added to the list of factors that seriously increase the risk of early death: sleep disorders and type 2 diabetes.
The study included more than 500,000 middle-aged people, and its results were the first of their kind: scientists from Northwestern University in Chicago and the University of Surrey analyzed the combination of diabetes and poor sleep as a double risk.
According to a press release published on the EurekAlert platform, people with type 2 diabetes who also have sleep problems have an 87% higher risk of premature death compared to those without such problems. In comparison, diabetics without sleep disorders had only a 12% increased risk.
By the term “poor sleep,” researchers mean not only lack of sleep, but also difficulty falling asleep, interrupted sleep, or sleep apnea syndrome — a brief cessation of breathing.
Scientists are urging doctors to take complaints of poor sleep more seriously, especially among people with chronic diseases. At the same time, they emphasize that prevention of sleep disorders should begin at a young age, as this may be a critical factor in preserving longevity.
