The Importance of Sleep for Diabetes Associated Tasks and Outcomes

Adolescents with type 1 diabetes (T1D) experience more disturbed sleep compared to their healthy peers, especially because they tend to spend less time in deep sleep, the most restoring part of sleep, potentially impacting diabetes management. Disturbed sleep may adversely affect diabetes management which requires day-to-day decision-making, emotional and behavioural regulation, attention, and planning. Despite a massive increase in new technology, more than 50% of adolescents do not reach their glycaemic target. Lack of sleep impairing diabetes management including blood glucose monitoring may play an important role in reaching the goal. For approximately 4000 children and adolescents in Denmark living with T1D, sleep disturbances may therefore account for short and long-term diabetes complications. Our overall aims are to investigate: (1) If and how glycaemic variability (GV) influences sleep quality and sleep stages and (2) if and how poor sleep quality influences time-in-range (TIR), time-above-range (TAR) and time-below-range (TBR) the following day.