Individuals with type 2 diabetes who are sleeping poorly may have wounds that won’t heal as fast, new research indicates.
University of Tennessee-Knoxville researchers found disrupted sleep and type 2 diabetes tied into needing more time for healing skin wounds. In their experiment, they used obese mice with features of type 2 diabetes who received a small surgical wound. Investigators assessed how long it took the wound to heal under a normal sleep schedule, as well as with sleep that was repeatedly interrupted.
The diabetic mice with fragmented sleep needed about 13 days for their wounds to achieve 50% healing, said Ralph Lydic, Ph.D., Robert H. Cole Endowed Professor of Neuroscience. He worked with a multidisciplinary team of researchers at UT Knoxville and the UT Graduate School of Medicine. They found that, comparatively, the wounds for mice with normal weights achieved the same milestone in around five days.
Sleep disorders and type 2 diabetes have been widely studied, with researchers finding that people with a lack of sleep experience more metabolic changes.
The latest research indicates that those with type 2 diabetes and a lack of sleep likely have bodies with weaker immune systems, making them more vulnerable to infections and a slower wound healing process.
Results were published in Sleep in August.
From the October 2018 Issue of McKnight's Long-Term Care News
