Night owls – people who are habitually active or awake during the night – tend to have a higher body mass index (BMI), larger waistlines and more hidden body fat and are therefore nearly 50 percent more likely to develop type 2 diabetes (T2D) than those who go to bed earlier, new research shows Monday.
Previous studies have indicated that late chronotype (people who prefer to go to bed late and wake up late) lead an unhealthy lifestyle and are at higher risk of obesity and metabolic disorders, including type 2 diabetes.
The new study showed that a late chronotype had a 46 percent higher risk of developing diabetes, suggesting that the increased risk of type 2 diabetes cannot be explained by lifestyle alone.
“We think there are other mechanisms at play as well,” said lead researcher Dr. Jeroen van der Velde of Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands.
“A likely explanation is that the circadian rhythm or biological clock in late chronotypes is not synchronized with the work and social schedules followed by society. This can lead to circadian misalignment, which we know can lead to metabolic disorders and ultimately type 2 diabetes,” van der Velde added.
To explore this, the team studied the association between sleep schedule, diabetes and body fat distribution in more than 5,000 individuals who were divided into three groups: early chronotype (20 percent), late chronotype (20 percent) and intermediate chronotype (60 percent).
The team measured BMI and waist circumference in all participants, while visceral fat and liver fat were measured in 1,526 participants, using magnetic resonance imaging scans and magnetic resonance spectroscopy, respectively.
About 225 were diagnosed with diabetes after a follow-up of 6.6 years.
Late chronotypes were found to be at increased risk of developing diabetes, had a 0.7 kg/m2 higher BMI, a 1.9 cm larger waist circumference, 7 cm2 more visceral fat, and a 14 percent higher liver fat content, compared to those with an intermediate chronotype.
Higher amounts of visceral fat and liver fat were responsible for people with a late chronotype having a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes, van der Velde said.
The findings will be presented at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) Annual Meeting in Madrid, Spain (9-13 September).
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