CODEC – Chronotype Of Patients with Type 2 Diabetes and Effect on Blood Sugar Control
Principal Investigator: Dr Andrew Hall
Your chronotype is your behaviour in relation to when you feel sleepy and go to bed and when you naturally wake up in the morning. Previous research has shown that people who have later bedtimes (colloquially called ‘night owls’) are more likely to develop diabetes and other health problems, such as heart disease. This still holds true, even when the night owls get the same number of hours sleep as early risers.
The underlying causes have not been clearly defined, but appear to be related to circadian misalignment. This is where societal pressures, such as work shifts, force us to wake earlier than we naturally would, or stay awake longer than we naturally would.
The concept is called ‘social jetlag’ and has been developed to describe the damaging effects of chronic sleep deprivation related to this mismatching of sleep timing and chronotype. This is important because social jetlag has been associated with obesity, which increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
The CODEC study aims to identify the chronotypes in patients with type 2 diabetes to find out what impact, if any, the chronotype has on the patient’s ability to control their blood sugar levels, among other biological measures. Optional sub-studies will also explore the links between chronotype and physical activity, energy intake and genes called ‘clock genes’, which are involved in determining our natural sleeping patterns.
For more information about the CODEC study, please email the CODEC study team at codec@uhl-tr.nhs.uk or call 0116 258 8070.