A new study found patients reporting sleep-related leg movements were 72% more likely to have diabetes than those who did not report these movements.
RT’s Three Key Takeaways:
- Potential Diabetes Link – A large study found that adults who report sleep-related leg movements are 72% more likely to have diabetes even after accounting for major health and demographic factors.
- Limited Explanatory Factors – Short sleep duration and inflammation accounted for only a small part of the association, suggesting other biological mechanisms may connect leg movements and metabolic disease.
- Emerging Risk Marker – Researchers highlight that SRLMs, often viewed as benign, may represent an under-recognized risk factor for chronic conditions like diabetes and warrant further objective investigation.
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.
For the study, the researchers analyzed data from more than 9,000 adults in a publicly available health database to determine how frequently sleep-related leg movements were associated with diabetes. They explored whether short sleep duration or inflammation markers in the body might help explain the link.
After adjusting for demographic and clinical factors—such as age, body mass index, sleep apnea, and hypertension—the researchers found that people who reported SRLMs were 72% more likely to have diabetes than those who did not report these movements. Short sleep duration and inflammation explained only a small portion of the relationship.
Zinchuk emphasized that the study is exploratory, a proof of concept that suggests there may be a relationship. “What we need to do next is measure these limb movements and potential mechanisms objectively to see if the link holds,” he says.
Exploratory studies like this are important because they can uncover new disease risk factors, he adds.
According to Zinchuk, this research is a new way of looking at SRLMs, which are typically considered benign. “This is the kind of work that can ultimately transform how we approach widespread chronic conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease, yielding high-impact change in prevention and management,” he says.
