Maintaining a consistent pattern of 7-8 hours of sleep during early to middle adulthood may lessen the risk for diabetes in women, according to a study published in Diabetes Care. Study investigators identified sleep duration trajectories based on data from 60,068 women (aged 20 to 25, 26 to 35, 36 to 45, and ≥46 years) participating in the Nurses’ Health Study II (median age, 54.9 years). Associations between sleep duration trajectories and incident type 2 diabetes were evaluated. During a median follow-up of 7.8 years, there were 1,797 incident diabetes cases. Persistent 5-, 6-, 7-, or 8-hour sleep duration trajectories were identified, in addition to increased or decreased sleep duration trajectories. Compared with the persistent 7-hour sleep duration group, the risk for diabetes was higher for most groups: 5-hour group (hazard ratio [HR], 1.43), 6-hour group (HR, 1.17), 8-hour group (HR, 0.96), increased sleep duration group (HR, 1.33), and decreased sleep duration group (HR, 1.32), after adjusting for diabetes risk factors. After further adjustment for time-updated comorbidities and body mass index, significantly higher risk remained only for the decreased sleep-duration group (HR, 1.24). “Our findings underscore that maintaining a consistent pattern of the recommended daily 7-8 hours of sleep is beneficial for the prevention of type 2 diabetes,” the authors write.

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