A new clinical study carried out by researchers at the University of Uppsala, in Sweden, suggests that sleeping fewer hours than recommended could alter the abundance of bacterial species in the intestines ; an alteration that has already been linked in previous research with the appearance of health problems in humans such as obesity or type 2 diabetes.
The study, led by Christian Benedict and Jonathan Cedernaes, was recently published in the journal Molecular Metabolism . It involved nine volunteers, healthy men of normal weight, who underwent two consecutive nights of partial sleep deprivation (they slept just over four hours, from 2:45 a.m. to 7 a.m.) and another two of normal sleep (about eight and a half hours, from 10:30 p.m. to 7 a.m.).
The objective? Analyze whether there was an alteration of the intestinal flora after sleep deprivation. For this, fecal samples were collected in the 24 hours before and after the two nights of disturbed sleep and normal sleep. In addition, the participants were subjected to glucose tolerance tests .
“Overall, no evidence was found to suggest that sleep restriction alters the diversity of gut flora,” explained Jonathan Cedernaes. “It was somewhat predictable, given the short-term nature of the intervention and that the sample size was relatively small. However, in more specific analyzes of the groups of bacteria, we saw changes in the gut microbiota that are similar to some changes in the microbiota that we have observed when, for example, obese subjects have been compared with individuals of normal weight in other studies, “he added. As the increase of the Firmicutes bacteria in proportion to the Bacteroidetes ; and it is that, according to other studies, obesity would be associated with an increase in the former and a reduction in the latter.
Likewise, the study revealed that the volunteers, after suffering the loss of sleep, were 20% less sensitive to the effects of insulin , although this circumstance was not related to alterations in the intestinal flora.
In any case, the researchers explain that they need to expand these studies, since longer follow-up periods are required in time, as well as a larger sample of individuals, to know to what extent lack of sleep affects the intestinal microbiota of patients. individuals and their health.
