The relationship between sleep and insulin sensitivity | David Sinclair
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Sleep is critical to human survival. Sleep deprivation has marked effects on glucose metabolism. Even a single night of partial sleep deprivation can induce insulin resistance and raise blood glucose levels. In this clip, Dr. Rhonda Patrick describes her personal experience with sleep deprivation and her subsequent altered metabolism.
Rhonda: Sleep is really important for aging as well, particularly the aging brain, you know, so... In fact, I was wearing a continuous glucose monitor. I've been wearing one for a few months now. And my son, like around Thanksgiving time, started having teething and stuff and he started waking up in the middle of the night and he'd be up for like an hour and it was like... So I was basically having very fragmented sleep and my blood glucose levels, like my fasting blood glucose levels and my postprandial were, like, 15 to 20 units higher. And this was, like, repeatable, very... I was, you know, my diet's... Pretty much, I eat the same thing, so it wasn't like eating anything like a cookie or anything like that. I mean, it was just like... And doing some high-intensity interval training did help, and there are actually some research on that, but I was astounded by the effect sleep had or a lack of sleep.
David: Yeah. If you take a rat and deprive it of sleep, it will get diabetes within a matter of a month or so.
Rhonda: I mean, it's just like it was... You know, I'd read the studies. I had Dr. Matt Walker on the podcast, talked all about it. But when it happens to yourself and you see the data, I mean, of course, it's still just an N-of-one for me. But I mean, it was just like, it was very... To me, it made it very real. I was like, "This really is regulating my insulin level, my insulin sensitivity."
David: Right. I could see my age changing when I had young kids.
Rhonda: Oh, absolutely. I've aged for sure. I mean, I can see it, like the... You know, especially as a nursing mother in the early, you know, days of my son being born, it was just so hard. I mean, it was so hard.
David: Yeah. Just check out photos of me in my 30s and early 40s when it was lack of sleep and stress and my wife screaming at me for traveling, that kind of stuff. That wore me out. You can see that I aged rapidly. Since then, I don't think and others don't think that I've aged much since then. So it's sleep and stress. All important.
A peptide hormone secreted by the beta cells of the pancreatic islets cells. Insulin maintains normal blood glucose levels by facilitating the uptake of glucose into cells; regulating carbohydrate, lipid, and protein metabolism; and promoting cell division and growth. Insulin resistance, a characteristic of type 2 diabetes, is a condition in which normal insulin levels do not produce a biological response, which can lead to high blood glucose levels.
Relating to the period after eating. Postprandial biomarkers are indicators of metabolic function. For example, postprandial hyperglycemia is an early sign of abnormal glucose homeostasis associated with type 2 diabetes and is markedly high in people with poorly controlled diabetes.
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