The Development of a Clinically Relevant Sleep Modification Protocol for Youth With Type 1 Diabetes

Findings from Type 2 diabetes research has indicated that sleep is both a predictor of onset and a correlate of disease progression. However, the role that sleep plays in glucose regulation and daytime functioning in youth with Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) has not been systematically investigated. Nonetheless, preliminary findings have supported that various sleep parameters are strongly correlated to health-related and neurobehavioral outcomes in youth with T1DM. This suggests that improving sleep might reduce morbidity. A critical step in developing evidence-based guidelines regarding sleep in diabetes management is to first determine that sleep modification in natural settings is possible (i.e., instructing youth to have a healthy sleep opportunity leads to more total sleep time) and that an increased sleep duration impacts disease and psychosocial outcomes in these youth. This article describes the background, design, and feasibility of an ongoing randomized clinical trial that aims to examine if increasing sleep relative to youth’s own sleep routines affects glucose control and daytime functioning.