Sweet Dreams: How Sleep and Sleep Disturbances Affect Glycemic Control in People With Diabetes: Preface

©2016 by the American Diabetes Association. Readers may use this article as long as the work is properly cited, the use is educational and not for profit, and the work is not altered. See http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0 for details. Sleep that knits up the ravelled sleeve of care The death of each day's life, sore labour's bath Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course, Chief nourisher in life's feast. —William Shakespeare, " Macbeth " O ne-third of our lives is spent sleeping. Nightly sleep is restorative , allowing our bodies and minds to rest and ready ourselves for a new day. For many people, sleep is often fragmented, and a full night of sound sleep is unattainable. Increasingly, people are seeking care for sleep problems, including insomnia , restless sleep, or daytime symptoms associated with disturbed sleep. Unfortunately, many people are unaware of the impact of disturbed sleep on overall health, and routine assessment of sleep disturbances should be a priority area of clinical assessment. People with diabetes are especially vulnerable to sleep disturbances such as insomnia, poor sleep quality, and sleep apnea. There is burgeoning research examining the interrelationships among sleep, altered glucose metabolism, and diabetes. Our understanding of the neurological, hormonal, and behavioral effects of altered sleep continues to grow as more complex findings emerge about sleep in the context of both health and disease. We are honored to serve as the guest editors of this timely Diabetes Spectrum From Research to Practice section. This special research section is devoted to the topic of sleep and diabetes in adults and children with diabetes. Four articles are included in this section. In the first, titled " Physiology of Sleep " (p. 5), David W. Carley and Sarah S. Farabi provide a cogent review of the basic anatomy and physiology of sleep. The authors explore how sleep and wake states are initiated and maintained, summarize behavioral and objective methods for measuring and quantifying sleep, and provide an overview of laboratory and home polysomnography testing. Finally, the authors provide the necessary background for the subsequent articles by introducing the interrelationships among endocrine hormones and metabolism, particularly glucose homeostasis, in sleep and wake states. This and each of the subsequent articles clearly highlight the need for more research examining the role of sleep disturbances in states of altered glucose metabolism, especially with regard to type 1 diabetes. People with type 1 diabetes …