Skeletal muscle insulin signaling and whole-body glucose metabolism following acute sleep restriction in healthy males.

Emma L Sweeney,Naomi E Brooks,Ian H Walshe,Stewart Jeromson,D Lee Hamilton

doi:10.14814/phy2.13498

Emma L Sweeney, Naomi E Brooks + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.14814/phy2.13498

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Abstract

Sleep restriction is associated with impaired glucose metabolism and insulin resistance, however, the underlying mechanisms leading to this impairment are unknown. This study aimed to assess whether the decrease in insulin sensitivity observed after sleep restriction is accompanied by changes in skeletal muscle PKB activity. Ten healthy young males participated in this randomized crossover study which included two conditions separated by a 3‐week washout period. Participants underwent two nights of habitual sleep (CON) and two nights of sleep which was restricted to 50% of habitual sleep duration (SR) in the home environment. Whole‐body glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity were assessed by an oral glucose tolerance test after the second night of each condition. Skeletal muscle tissue samples were obtained from the vastus lateralis to determine PKB activity. Findings displayed no effect of trial on plasma glucose concentrations (P = 0.222). Plasma insulin area under the curve was higher after sleep restriction compared to the control (P = 0.013). Matsuda index was 18.6% lower in the sleep restriction (P = 0.010). Fold change in PKB activity from baseline tended to be lower in the sleep restriction condition at 30 min (P = 0.098) and 120 min (P = 0.087). In conclusion, we demonstrated decreased whole‐body insulin sensitivity in healthy young males following two nights of sleep restriction. Skeletal muscle insulin signaling findings are inconclusive and require further study to examine any potential changes.

Highlights

Reduced sleep is associated with a number of disorders related to health (Steptoe et al 2006; Cappuccio et al 2010), with the relationship between sleep restriction and impaired metabolism being well established (Morselli et al 2010)
The aim of the present study was to investigate if the reduction in whole-body insulin sensitivity following acute sleep restriction was accompanied by any changes in skeletal muscle Protein kinase B (PKB) activity, a protein kinase that promotes GLUT4 translocation and glucose uptake via the insulin signaling pathway
Our results demonstrate that two nights of sleep restriction impaired whole-body insulin sensitivity; our findings regarding skeletal muscle insulin signaling following sleep restriction are inconclusive, they do point toward potential decreases in the response of skeletal muscle PKB activity to glucose intake in healthy young men

Summary

Introduction

Reduced sleep is associated with a number of disorders related to health (Steptoe et al 2006; Cappuccio et al 2010), with the relationship between sleep restriction and impaired metabolism being well established (Morselli et al 2010). Reduced glucose clearance following sleep restriction has been previously shown to be due to impaired insulin sensitivity (Buxton et al 2010; Donga et al 2010; Broussard et al 2012; Rao et al 2015; Wang et al 2016) which can be reduced by up to 25% after only a single night of sleep restriction (Donga et al 2010), or by restricting sleep by only 1–3 h for 3 consecutive nights in young healthy adults (Wang et al 2016) These data demonstrate that even acute mild sleep restriction may be detrimental to both glucose regulation and insulin sensitivity.

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