Sleep and Diabetes in Adolescents: A Battle between Physiology and Social Factors

Abstract

About 200,000 of individuals under 20 years of age have been diagnosed with diabetes. Many of them have type 1 diabetes (T1D) but type 2 diabetes (T2D), a disease that used to be seen primarily in adults over age 45, is becoming more common in young people.1 Results from the ‘SEARCH for Diabetes in Youth study’ released data showing that type 2 diabetes in 10 to 19-year-olds had increased 21% between 2001 and 2009. The study reported an increase among White, Black and Hispanic children.2 There are several causes that could be responsible for this jump in prevalence such as an increase in minority population, exposure to diabetes in utero, exposure to endocrine disruptive chemicals and the soaring obesity rates.3 The increase will have public health consequences. More children will enter adulthood with an increased risk of early complications. Younger patients also still have reproductive years ahead of them and diabetes in pregnancy is a risk factor for diabetes in the next generation.