Research

Hormonal

A single night of partial sleep restriction (4 hours) induces insulin resistance in healthy subjects by reducing both hepatic and peripheral insulin sensitivity.

If you only get 4 hours of sleep, expect your body to handle glucose less efficiently the next day, even if you are healthy and lean. This means your blood sugar may stay higher after meals, and your body is less effective at storing glucose in muscles. Prioritize sleep duration to maintain metabolic health.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Partial sleep deprivation during only a single night induces insulin resistance in multiple metabolic pathways in healthy subjects.
Esther Donga et al. · The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism · 2010

Why this rating

Randomized crossover design with gold-standard hyperinsulinemic euglycemic clamp, but small sample size (n=9).

Source

A Single Night of Partial Sleep Deprivation Induces Insulin Resistance in Multiple Metabolic Pathways in Healthy Subjects

Esther Donga et al. · The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism · 2010

DOI 10.1210/jc.2009-2430

crossover · n=9Cited 377×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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