University Of Chicago Medicine researchers tested sleep deprivation on volunteers whose sleep reduced from eight and a half hours to four and a half house per night. Fat cells where then tested for insulin response
The volunteers had a 30 percent reduction in the ability to respond to insulin, which took their fat cell functioning down to that of an obese or diabetic person.
"If this study shows that sleep restriction is causing such drastic changes in healthy people, I think it has really broad implications for what sleep restriction could be doing to already vulnerable people," Dr. Josiane Broussard, Ph.D., researcher U of Chicago Medicine, said.
Learn more about the study in the journal "Annals of Internal Medicine."
