This interesting study tested afternoon napping effects on BG levels against the same amount of total sleep, but uninterrupted. The outcome: split sleep produces better alertness but worse BG.
This is a technique my 14-year old uses when he can’t get enough sleep
I don’t have kids. Because I require a ton of sleep.
But I’m wondering is 6.5 hours of sleep (or 5 hours and 1.5 hour afternoon nap) really realistic for teens these days? If it is, I want to cry and then remind people that maybe their priorities are worth re-examining. But again, I require a lot of sleep.
Not everyday but yes, this is a realistic scenario. My son’s both have extracurricular activities, work and school work to do every day. We have seen my son’s up at midnight finishing an assignment after participating in a sporting event, and often their schedule allows a bit of time between school and the other activity to grab a nap.
I’d cry, too. I require ridiculous amounts of sleep as well.
I’m not exactly surprised that interrupted sleep affects glucose control, but this is still an interesting study. During the fun infant sleep phase of our life, it got to the point with my daughter that I thought I might quite literally go insane (she was still waking every 1-2 hours until 16mo ). I wasn’t diagnosed then, so can’t speak to my BG, but I was a mess on just about every level.
I’m a little surprised teens can function on so little sleep…but if that’s the norm, now it makes more sense why my boss while I was in college was so shocked when I told him once (he asked) that I’d spent my weekend sleeping 13+ hr nights.
These days it works either way for me; I can sleep or not, but when I was young my parents insisted on at least 8 hours per day and, in practice, since I was forced to go to bed before 10pm and got up, grudgingly, at 8am, I subsisted on 10 hours.
It doesn’t have anything to do with diabetes; my mother had to sit by my bed for 10 of those hours to make sure I didn’t go hypo.
Most days I sleep more: maybe 8-9 hours most days? But some days I sleep 6.5 hours or less because of homework, when you have several projects due for instance.
When I feel tired I take a 30 minute nap when I come back from, school. Rarely I take a 90 minute nap. The results of the study are really too bad, because sometimes there is no choice.
Like @TravelingOn and @Pianoplayer7008, I also need a ton of sleep. Like I give myself nine hours in bed (I often sleep for eight of those), but if I have more time I’ll often sleep longer like nine or ten hours. I try to make as much of that sleep uninterrupted lately, but that’s easier said than done sometimes.
I did extracurricular activities as a teenager (and obviously school), but I’m fairly sure it didn’t interrupt my sleep to any large degree. A few late nights here and there, and some late nights by choice, but often I could get to bed on time. And no testing overnight or CGMs, so I think my sleep back then was better than my sleep now!
I’m reading the book Why We Sleep right now. It’s really interesting and is convincing me that getting enough sustained, good-quality sleep is just as important as eating healthily and getting exercise, yet it’s something we ignore all the time. I think the book has an entire chapter devoted to the problems of adolescents and sleep, but I haven’t gotten that far yet.
). I wasn’t diagnosed then, so can’t speak to my BG, but I was a mess on just about every level.