Resources:

Sleep OS Hormones → https://thelongevityvault.com/sleep-os/hormones/

Subscribe for more evidence-based guides on sleep in midlife and beyond → https://thelongevityvault.substack.com

Does Short Sleep Impair Blood Sugar Control (Even with a Healthy Diet)

Many adults in midlife and beyond consistently sleep less than 7 hours, even while eating well and staying active. This episode reframes that pattern as a metabolic signal: chronic short sleep steadily lowers insulin sensitivity in muscle and liver, so the pancreas must work harder to keep glucose in range.

You’ll hear how this plays out in three groups—healthy adults, people with prediabetes, and “healthy but susceptible” adults with higher cardiometabolic risk—using data from large cohorts and a 6-week randomized sleep-restriction trial.

Key points

Large-scale data from ~247,000 UK adults show that sleeping under 6 hours per night raises type 2 diabetes risk over ~12 years, even after adjusting for diet quality, activity, BMI, blood pressure, and antidepressant use.

Mechanistically, short sleep lowers insulin sensitivity in muscle and liver; blood sugar may remain “normal” at first, but only because the pancreas increases insulin output to compensate.

Sleep duration emerges as a third modifiable pillar of diabetes prevention—alongside nutrition and physical activity.

Listen for: How chronic short sleep alters insulin and glucose dynamics; why prediabetes status amplify that effect; and which structural changes can realistically add 20–40 minutes of sleep in midlife and later life.

Read the full article: Does Short Sleep Impair Blood Sugar Control (Even with a Healthy Diet?)

Learn more inside Sleep OS Hormones → https://thelongevityvault.com/sleep-os/hormones/

Resources:

Sleep OS Hormones → https://thelongevityvault.com/sleep-os/hormones/

Subscribe for more evidence-based guides on sleep in midlife and beyond → https://thelongevityvault.substack.com

Have you been “treating” or “solving” bad sleep?

Most people approach sleep the way they approach back pain. They reduce friction. They manage flare-ups. They build elaborate workarounds that make the problem more tolerable.

This episode draws a clean line between two categories of sleep effort. One category reduces disruption. The other restores capacity. If your improvements have been “sometimes” and “somewhat,” this distinction explains why.

Listen for:

Why “sleep hygiene” often produces partial results, how to categorize any sleep recommendation, and what it means to rebuild sleep capacity rather than manage nighttime friction.

If you want my full 5-Part Sleep Clarity series in your inbox, subscribe here:

Subscribe now

Read the full article: Have you been ‘treating’ or ‘solving’ bad sleep?

Learn more inside Sleep OS Hormones → https://thelongevityvault.com/sleep-os/hormones/

Resources:

Sleep OS Hormones → https://thelongevityvault.com/sleep-os/hormones/

Subscribe for more evidence-based guides on sleep in midlife and beyond → https://thelongevityvault.substack.com

Sleep Is Hard, but Here’s What’s Empowering

Sleep resists willpower. You can choose what you eat and when you exercise. You cannot choose unconsciousness on demand. That mismatch is why so many health-conscious adults do “everything right” and still wake at 3 a.m.

I lived that pattern for fifteen years. I was Person A. Supplements stacked for sleep. Devices on the nightstand. Blue blockers by late afternoon. The problem persisted because I kept adding tactics without understanding what was driving my arousal and awakenings.

The Vault 5-Part Sleep Clarity SeriesOver 5 episodes, I’ll be your sleep mentor that lives in your inbox. We’ll uncover why the standard approaches haven’t worked, reframe the problem, and move you from “trying” to “doing.” Most importantly, you’ll see why Person B sleep is realistic—because you have not tried everything.

What do you say, are you ready?

If you’re in subscribe here, I’ll be sending the first episode in a few days.

Subscribe now

You shouldn’t have to micromanage light, food, and magnesium to get six hours. With the Sleep Clarity Series, you won’t.

Learn more inside Sleep OS Hormones → https://thelongevityvault.com/sleep-os/hormones/