Have you ever thought that lack of sleep during a week could have no impact on your health? Especially if you are diabetic, all you have to do is to sleep extra for hours on weekends, claims Josaine Broussard of the University of Colorado Boulder, lead author of study into this matter.

In the first experiment, the volunteers were given four days of normal sleep of 8.5 hours, which was followed by a test to report insulin sensitivity. In the second experiment, conducted by Broussard, 19 healthy men were deprived of sleep for four nights to observe variation in their insulin sensitivity, which fell by 23% and their produced additional insulin when they took average sleep of 4.5 hours. Following they were let sleep for two days of normal sleep, when the participants slept for 9.5 hours. When the test was again conducted, it showed their insulin sensitivity and insulin production resuming to normal rate which matched to first experiment.

The volunteers during experiments were given a calorie-controlled diet to avoid the influence of their food and drink choices to influence the outcomes. Broussard’s main concern was to report reaction on insulin sensitivity to assess the impact of sleep on diabetes risk. Impaired insulin sensitivity is one risk factor for type 2 diabetes, which happens when the body can't properly convert blood sugar into energy.

“We don’t know if people can recover if the behavior is repeated every week,” Broussard added by email. “It is likely though that if any group of people suffer from sleep loss, getting extra sleep will be beneficial.” And it doesn’t also prove that catching up on sleep will prevent diabetes. According to him, this test can give researchers hope that extra sleep on weekend can reduce effects of sleep deprivation.