Genetic links to blood sugar differ with sleep duration
The analysis identified 16 DNA regions, including 11 newly identified ones, whose links to blood sugar or insulin measures differed with short or long sleep.
480,000 participants
Limit: The abstract omits association sizes, preventing assessment of how much genetic links differ
Edited by Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News
In an observational study in humans, researchers examined how genetic links to blood sugar measures differed with short or long sleep duration. They identified 16 DNA regions, including 11 newly identified ones. The measures were hemoglobin A1c, which reflects average blood sugar, fasting blood sugar and fasting insulin, a hormone that helps control blood sugar.
The regions linked to short sleep did not overlap with those linked to long sleep. The authors suggested that different cell processes might be involved. They implicated regulation of copper levels for the regions interacting with long sleep, and regulation of diacylglycerol, a fat molecule, for those interacting with short sleep. They suggested that the identified gene targets could inform potential approaches to designing type 2 diabetes therapies.
Why it matters
Blood sugar control is central to type 2 diabetes, a disease that becomes more common with age. These genetic links offer clues to how sleep duration may relate to the disease’s development.
Caveats
These observational findings cannot establish that changing sleep duration would change blood sugar control. The abstract does not report participants’ ages, the definitions of short and long sleep, or the sizes of the associations.
- Short sleep duration
- Long sleep duration
- Lipid and ceramide metabolism
- Hemoglobin A1c
- Fasting insulin
- Humans
The paper
Gene-by-Sleep Duration Interaction for Glycemic Traits in More Than 480,000 Individuals
Brigham and Women's Hospital; Lifelines
Diabetes, Oct 29, 2026
