Adolescents with type 1 diabetes who displayed a greater variability in sleep duration between weekdays and weekends were more likely to monitor blood glucose less frequently, have a higher HbA1c and spend less time in the target blood glucose range vs. children who maintain a regular bedtime, according to findings published in Pediatric Diabetes, reports Healio.
“Sleep is a potential risk or protective factor for diabetes-related outcomes in adolescents with type 1 diabetes,” Sarah S. Jaser, PhD,associate professor of pediatrics at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, told Endocrine Today. “In particular, we found that greater variability in sleep duration, or differences between school night and weekend night sleep duration, was related to poorer glycemic control and self-care behavior. Furthermore, most of the adolescents in our sample were not meeting recommendations for sleep duration (average sleep time was 6 hours, 54 minutes).”
Jaser and colleagues analyzed data from 65 adolescents with type 1 diabetes and their caregivers, recruited during scheduled clinic appointments (80% white; mean diabetes duration, 6 years; 59% on pump therapy). Adolescents and caregivers received training on using an actigraph watch (Phillips Actiwatch Spectrum Plus), with adolescents instructed to wear the watch continuously for 7 days, pressing an event marker at “lights out” and “lights on” to determine time in bed.
