Just 2 days of sleep loss may trigger changes in gut microbiota that are associated with poor metabolic health. This is the finding of a small study published in the journal Molecular Metabolism.

Share on Pinterest Researchers suggest sleep loss may alter gut microbiota.

For optimal health and well-being, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommend adults aged 18-60 years get at least 7 hours of sleep every night.

However, earlier this year, a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revealed that more than a third of adults in the United States are not meeting these recommendations.

Lack of sleep has been linked to increased risk of numerous health problems, including high blood pressure, stroke, heart disease, obesity, and type 2 diabetes.

Previous research has also associated changes in gut microbiota – the community of microorganisms that reside in the digestive tract – with obesity and type 2 diabetes. Whether sleep loss plays a role in this relationship, however, has been unclear.

According to the researchers of the new study – including first author Christian Benedict of the Department of Neuroscience at Uppsala University in Sweden – some studies in mice and humans have suggested that gut bacteria have a circadian rhythm that might be disrupted by sleep loss.

“However, to date, there are no studies that have investigated the impact of insufficient sleep on the composition of the human gut microbiota,” they add.

“Studies are therefore lacking that assess whether important adverse metabolic changes that may increase the risk of [type 2 diabetes] and obesity, such as impaired insulin sensitivity, are associated with changes in the gut microbiome and associated SCFAs [short chain fatty acids] that could result from recurrent sleep loss.”