Long‑term trajectories of sleep duration are associated with incident diabetes in middle‑to‑older‑aged Black and White Americans – published online 27/06/2024

Qian Xiao, Kelsie M. Full, Martin K. Rutter, Loren Lipworth

Sleep deficiency is a well-recognised risk factor for diabetes. However, there has been limited study on long-term trajectories of sleep and diabetes risk, especially among disadvantaged populations. In this issue, Xiao et al (https://doi.org/10.1007/s00125-024-06202-8) assess long-term trajectories of sleep duration and incident diabetes in a large cohort of predominantly Black and low-income populations in the southeastern USA, finding that suboptimal sleep duration trajectories were associated with higher odds of incident diabetes. Specifically, when compared with individuals who maintained 7–9 hours of sleep over the follow-up period, people with sleep trajectories that deviated from this pattern had a significant increase in diabetes risk. In particular, the trajectories characterised by switching between the long and short sleep duration were associated with the largest elevation in risk (~50%). The authors conclude that their study highlights the importance of maintaining healthy sleep for metabolic health and suggest that suboptimal sleep patterns may be an important contributing factor to the high burden of metabolic diseases in disadvantaged populations.