Longer sleep may be linked to higher risk of kidney disease in people with type 2 diabetes: Study

People with type 2 diabetes who sleep longer may have an increased risk of developing or worsening existing diabetic kidney disease, according to a study published in the Journal of the Endocrine Society.

Diabetic nephropathy, also known as diabetic kidney disease, is a serious kidney condition caused by long-term damage from type 1 or type 2 diabetes. It is among the most prevalent and severe complications of diabetes, affecting approximately 30% to 40% of people with the condition. It is strongly associated with the development of end-stage kidney disease and an increased risk of cardiovascular events.

“Diabetic kidney disease is a major complication of diabetes and can eventually lead to kidney failure and an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Sleep is a simple and routinely experienced aspect of daily life, so our findings suggest that longer sleep duration may provide a useful clue to identify people with diabetes who may need closer attention to their kidney health,” said study author Tomoya Mita, M.D., Ph.D., of Juntendo University Graduate School of Medicine in Tokyo, Japan. “At the same time, people should not interpret our findings as a recommendation to reduce their sleep, since this was an observational study and we cannot establish a causal relationship between sleep duration and kidney disease.”

The researchers studied 678 Japanese people with type 2 diabetes and found longer habitual sleep duration was associated with a higher risk of developing or worsening diabetic nephropathy during approximately six years of follow-up.

The association was particularly evident among older adults and those who already had signs of kidney damage, such as microalbuminuria or reduced kidney function.

“Importantly, our findings do not show that long sleep directly causes kidney disease; rather, longer sleep may be a readily observable marker of underlying health vulnerability,” Mita said.

Reference:

Fuki Ikeda, Tomoya Mita, Yusuke Osonoi, Yuki Someya, Takeshi Osonoi, Miyoko Saito, Shiho Nakayama, Hidenori Ishida, Ryota Ishii, Masahiko Gosho, Hirotaka Watada, Longer sleep duration and the incidence and progression of diabetic nephropathy: a prospective cohort study, Journal of the Endocrine Society, Volume 10, Issue 11, November 2026, bvag201, https://doi.org/10.1210/jendso/bvag201