Le manque de sommeil favorise-t-il l'obésité, le diabète et les maladies cardiovasculaires ?

Experimental sleep curtailment studies carried upon a few days has drawn attention regarding the role played by sleep for metabolic and cardiovascular balance. Experimental sleep curtailment increases appetite and hunger, impairs its hormonal regulation via leptin and ghrelin, increases insulin resistance, reduces insulin production creating a prediabetic state in otherwise young healthy subjects, enhances cortisol and growth hormone secretion as well as sympathetic activity. The relationships between sleep duration and metabolic and cardiovascular outcomes have been largely studied by different groups in cross-sectional and prospective epidemiological studies, most of them controlling for a wide panel of confounding factors. It appears that, when compared to a “normal” daily sleep duration of 7 hours, sleeping regularly 5 hours or less (or even in some studies 6 hours) is associated with a higher risk for obesity, diabetes, hypertension, coronary heart diseases and death from cardiovascular origin; short-sleep duration also predicts a higher risk for some of these pathologies. The Sleep Heart Health Study and the studies performed by the group of Vgontzas has confirmed the role of objective sleep duration, ruled out the responsibility for sleep apnea and periodic leg movements, and stresses the role of insomnia. All these results may draw attention of public health authorities and populations to the detrimental effects of chronic short-sleep duration and the danger of considering sleep as just a waste of time.