Association Between Excessive Daytime Sleepiness and Severe Hypoglycemia in People With Type 2 Diabetes: The Edinburgh Type 2 Diabetes Study

OBJECTIVE

Sleep-disordered breathing and sleepiness cause metabolic, cognitive, and behavioral disturbance. Sleep-disordered breathing is common in type 2 diabetes, a condition that requires adherence to complex dietary, behavioral, and drug treatment regimens. Hypoglycemia is an important side effect of treatment, causing physical and psychological harm and limiting ability to achieve optimal glycemic control. We hypothesized that sleep disorder might increase the risk of hypoglycemia through effects on self-management and glucose regulation.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS

People with type 2 diabetes (n = 898) completed questionnaires to assess sleep-disordered breathing, daytime sleepiness, and occurrence of severe hypoglycemia.

RESULTS

Subjects who scored highly on the Epworth Sleepiness Scale were significantly more likely to have suffered from severe hypoglycemia. This was a significant predictor of severe hypoglycemia in regression analysis including the variables age, sex, duration of diabetes, HbA_1c, BMI, and treatment type.

CONCLUSIONS

Daytime sleepiness may be a novel risk factor for hypoglycemia.Hypoglycemia is an adverse side effect of insulin and sulfonylurea treatment for type 2 diabetes. Factors influencing risk of severe hypoglycemia (requiring external assistance) include duration of diabetes (1), duration of insulin treatment (2), renal impairment (2), age (1), comorbidities (3), and impaired awareness of hypoglycemia (4). Sleep-disordered breathing with associated daytime somnolence is reported in up to 75% of people with type 2 diabetes (5) and is linked to a range of cardiovascular and metabolic morbidities (6). We hypothesized that sleep disorder and increased daytime sleepiness would be associated with increased frequency of severe hypoglycemia in people with diabetes.