Make sure your fat gets enough sleep

If you miss out on sleep, you soon feel the impact. But did you know those effects could run right down to the level of your cells?

A study in the Annals of Internal Medicine suggests that if we miss out on shuteye our fat cells can become resistant to the important regulatory hormone insulin. In type-2 diabetes, fat cells become resistant to insulin.

But where does sleep come in? Biopsies of abdominal fat cells from healthy adults showed that after four nights of shortened sleep (4.5 hours compared to 8.5 hours) the fat cells were were less sensitive insulin. So do your fat cells a favour and get enough slumber.