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Restless nights can take a toll that goes beyond next-day tiredness. Sleep influences nearly every aspect of our health, and chronic disruptions to sleep patterns have been linked to increased risks for different diseases. To further investigate this connection, a recent study explored the association between sleep-related leg movements and diabetes.
Sleep-related leg movements, or SRLMs, are the twitches, jerks, or other leg movements that can disturb sleep. These can include periodic limb movements of sleep (PLMS), in which the legs repeatedly contract during the night, and restless legs syndrome, in which uncomfortable sensations create an urge to move. Because many people notice these movements themselves or hear about them from a bed partner, SRLMs are typically patient-reported rather than measured in a sleep study.
According to the senior author of the study, Andrey Zinchuk, MD, associate professor of medicine in Yale School of Medicine's Section of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine (Yale-PCCSM), SRLMs are fairly common and may be tied to changes in heart rate, blood pressure, and sympathetic nervous system activity.
"Theoretically, these changes could have an impact on chronic conditions linked to sympathetic activation, like hypertension or diabetes," he explains. Prior work has also shown that PLMS measured in sleep studies can predict the development of diabetes, findings that helped shape the rationale for this study.