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Review
. 2024 Mar 25:15:1294638.
doi: 10.3389/fendo.2024.1294638. eCollection 2024.

Association between napping and type 2 diabetes mellitus

Hongyi Liu  1 , Yingxin Wu  1 , Hui Zhu  2 , Penghao Wang  1 , Tao Chen  1 , Anyu Xia  3 , Zhijia Zhao  1 , Da He  4 , Xiang Chen  4 , Jin Xu  1   5 , Lindan Ji  5   6
Affiliations
Review

Association between napping and type 2 diabetes mellitus

Hongyi Liu et al. Front Endocrinol (Lausanne). .

Erratum in

Abstract

As the incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is increasing rapidly and its consequences are severe, effective intervention and prevention, including sleep-related interventions, are urgently needed. As a component of sleep architecture, naps, alone or in combination with nocturnal sleep, may influence the onset and progression of T2DM. Overall, napping is associated with an increased risk of T2DM in women, especially in postmenopausal White women. Our study showed that napping >30 minutes (min) increased the risk of T2DM by 8-21%. In addition, non-optimal nighttime sleep increases T2DM risk, and this effect combines with the effect of napping. For nondiabetic patients, napping >30 min could increase the risks of high HbA1c levels and impaired fasting glucose (IFG), which would increase the risk of developing T2DM later on. For diabetic patients, prolonged napping may further impair glycemic control and increase the risk of developing diabetic complications (e.g., diabetic nephropathy) in the distant future. The following three mechanisms are suggested as interpretations for the association between napping and T2DM. First, napping >30 min increases the levels of important inflammatory factors, including interleukin 6 and C-reactive protein, elevating the risks of inflammation, associated adiposity and T2DM. Second, the interaction between postmenopausal hormonal changes and napping further increases insulin resistance. Third, prolonged napping may also affect melatonin secretion by interfering with nighttime sleep, leading to circadian rhythm disruption and further increasing the risk of T2DM. This review summarizes the existing evidence on the effect of napping on T2DM and provides detailed information for future T2DM intervention and prevention strategies that address napping.

Keywords: interaction; napping; nighttime sleep duration; sleep pattern; type 2 diabetes mellitus.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The positive and negative health outcomes of napping.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Effect of napping on T2DM by gender.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Effect of napping on T2DM incidence in premenopausal women. The plot shows the effect of different napping durations on the risk of T2DM in premenopausal women. CI, confidence interval; OR, odds ratio. The OR based on multiple regression analysis from the Fang study (24) and the adjusted OR from the Sun study (23) are reported.
Figure 4
Figure 4
The influence of naps on T2DM.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was supported by the Ningbo Youth Science and Technology Innovation Leaders Project (2023QL057), Technology Innovation 2025 Major Project of Ningbo (2021Z054), Graduate Student Scientific Research and Innovation Project of Ningbo University (IF2023057), Ningbo Clinical Medical Research Center for Ophthalmology (2022L003), and Beijing Zhongwei Joint Funds of the Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (LBY24H040001, LBY24H040002).