A good snooze and sweet dreams may translate to acceptable blood sugar control, researchers based in the University of Chicago noted.

The Archives of Internal Medicine recently published a study which revealed the significance of sleep among type 2 diabetics. The researchers have long been aware of a link between sleep and glucose control but have only now obtained “evidence connecting chronic partial sleep deprivation and reduced blood-sugar control in patients with diabetes,” research head Kristen Knutson remarked.

Study participants, African-Americans with type 2 diabetes, were asked to answer queries called the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. Afterwards, the patients’ glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c), which shows one’s average blood sugar level for the last three months, was also measured.

The study revealed that majority of the participants (71 percent) were not getting enough sleep and had poor control of their blood sugars. Of the 161 patients, a measly six percent got to sleep for eight hours. Meanwhile, 8.3 percent was the average score for HbA1c. This figure is higher than the normal HbA1c rate of four to six percent.

Aside from the length of sleep, the snooze quality was just as important. Some patients reported difficulty getting a good night’s sleep because of pain related to diabetes complications. Sleep discomfort also corresponded to increases in HbA1c.

In the long run, poor sleeping habits affect not only the glucose control of diabetics but also insulin secretion and metabolism. Pre-diabetics also up their chances of having full- blown diabetes if they maintain insufficient sleep night after night.