We could all use more sleep鈥攂ut not just for beauty purposes. Sleep is restorative, and consistently sleeping less than seven hours a night increases your risk of health problems like Type 2 diabetes.
Researchers from the College of Health are investigating interventions to help people get more sleep. assistant professor in the College of Health鈥檚 has received a $3.8 million R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health for 鈥淏iomarkers of Habitual Short Sleep and Related Cardiometabolic Risk.鈥
He鈥檒l use these funds over the next five years to conduct a randomized trial in people who sleep less than the recommended seven hours a night and are overweight or obese.
鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to figure out what mechanisms are driving poor health outcomes of short sleep and how we can mitigate the risk in people who get less sleep,鈥 he said. 鈥淏asically, we want to study people who don鈥檛 sleep enough and help shift their circadian clock so they can sleep more.鈥
Previous studies have tied habitual short sleep duration to impaired glucose tolerance, insulin resistance and Type 2 diabetes. Depner鈥檚 own pilot research with young, healthy adults has shown that restricting their sleep increases their level of ceramides, a toxic fat that can cause multiple health conditions including Type 2 diabetes.
鈥淭hat population is at relatively low risk for chronic disease,鈥 he said. 鈥淓xpanding our research for individuals who are up to 45 years old and have higher risk of health conditions should give us room to see more improvement.鈥
Depner and his team plan to set up an eight-week intervention that will focus on sleep, but also incorporate aspects of nutrition and exercise. Before they enroll participants, they meet with individuals to determine that they have enough free time to spend more time in bed.
Once enrolled, participants wear a smart watch to track their sleep, receive weekly email updates on their sleep quality, and receive personalized counseling from a sleep coach. Overnight assessments will take place in the sleep labs at the new HPER East Research Center.
鈥淥ur goal is to get everyone up to eight hours in bed and work with them to get a schedule that works for them personally,鈥 he said. 鈥淥ur previous work has found that when participants follow our recommendations, it really does help increase their sleep duration.鈥
"We鈥檙e trying to figure out what mechanisms are driving poor health outcomes of short sleep and how we can mitigate the risk in people who get less sleep."
To better understand how to improve sleep, Depner is collaborating with faculty in the College of Health to study other contributing health indicators, like exercise and nutrition.
鈥淲e know all of these factors interact with each other,鈥 he said. 鈥淚n the big picture, we鈥檙e trying to understand how they all fit together to reduce your risk of disease overall.鈥
Depner collaborated with and chair of the Department of Nutrition and Integrative Physiology, on his pilot study involving sleep restriction and ceramides. He has another R01 proposal up for review that works with to study the impact of exercise on sleep and circadian physiology.
He鈥檚 also working with Summers and in the Department of Physical Therapy and Athletic Training, to determine if interventions to reduce ceramides can be targeted on a molecular level.
鈥淥ver the next 10 years, we鈥檇 love to figure out the optimal interventions for different populations,鈥 he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 great to have such a wide range of people here who are happy to collaborate.鈥
Originally published by the