Prediabetic owls may gain unhealthy weight

New York: People with prediabetes who are more active and alert later in the day those who have an evening preference -- may have higher body mass index (BMI), a new study has found.

The findings, published in the journal Frontiers in Endocrinology, also suggested that higher BMI among people with evening preference is related to lack of sufficient sleep.

"People can have more regular bedtimes and aim to have more sleep, which may help reduce BMI and the potential development of diabetes in this high-risk group," said lead author Sirimon Reutrakul from the University of Illinois at Chicago in the US.

Prediabetes is a condition where blood sugar levels are higher than normal but not yet high enough to be Type-2 diabetes.

According to the researchers, without modifications to diet and exercise, patients with prediabetes have a very high risk of developing Type-2 diabetes.

For the study, the research team involved 2,133 participants with prediabetes.

Participants who scored high in "morningness" answered questions indicating that they preferred to wake up earlier, have activities earlier, and felt more alert earlier in the day were compared with those who scored high on "eveningness".

Sleep duration and timing were obtained using a questionnaire and the extent of social jet lag was evaluated for each participant.

The average age of the participants was 64 years old, and average sleep duration was about seven hours per night.

The researchers found that for participants younger than 60 years of age, higher levels of social jet lag were associated with a higher BMI. 
Among participants older than 60 years old, those with more evening preference had higher BMIs and this effect was partly due to having insufficient sleep but not social jet lag. 

Evening preference was directly associated with higher BMI in this group, the researchers noted.