Impaired Insulin Profiles Following a Single Night of Sleep Restriction: The Impact of Acute Sprint Interval Exercise
in International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism 2020 Volume 30: Issue 2 Pages: 139–144 Emma L. Sweeney
Short sleep durations are becoming increasingly common, with almost 75% of adults in Great Britain sleeping outside the recommended 7–9 hr each night (Hirshkowitz et al., 2015). Chronic short sleep is associated with increased risk of developing many diseases, including type 2 diabetes (Yaggi et al., 2006). Experimental studies demonstrate impaired glucose control following sleep restriction (SR; Knutson et al., 2007), with a single night of restriction reducing whole-body insulin sensitivity by 20% (Donga et al., 2010).
The proposed mechanisms underlying impaired glucose regulation following SR include altered peripheral insulin sensitivity (Broussard et al., 2012; Rao et al., 2015) and changes to the metabolic profile, favoring fatty acid transportation (Davies et al., 2014) which may interfere with insulin signaling. However, although the detrimental effects of SR are clear, few studies have focused on strategies to counter the impairment.
Exercise may have the potential to alter these proposed underlying mechanisms (Saner et al., 2018). A single bout of exercise positively impacts glucose regulation for up to 24 hr (Koopman et al., 2005). This improvement in glucose regulation is apparent with various types of exercise (Breen et al., 2011; Gillen et al., 2012), although high-intensity exercise may to be superior to moderate-intensity exercise for improving insulin sensitivity (Ortega et al., 2015; Rynders et al., 2014). Sprint interval exercise has been shown to produce improvements in insulin area under the curve (AUC) and the insulin sensitivity index when measured 30-min postcessation of the exercise bout in healthy males (Ortega et al., 2015). Whether or not improvements such as these would occur in sleep-restricted individuals remains unknown.
Exercise appears to be a promising intervention to alleviate the impairment in insulin sensitivity following total sleep deprivation. Two weeks of high-intensity exercise training has been shown to attenuate the insulin response to an oral glucose tolerance test after one night of total sleep deprivation (de Souza et al., 2017). However, it remains unclear if a single bout of exercise performed after partial SR can produce similar outcomes.
Consequently, this study aimed to investigate the effect of a single bout of sprint interval exercise on whole-body insulin sensitivity, following a single night of SR. We hypothesized that insulin sensitivity would be reduced following SR and that this effect would be attenuated when exercise was performed.