The Role of Self-regulation Failures and Self-care in the Link Between Daily Sleep Quality and Blood Glucose Among Adults with Type 1 Diabetes

Abstract

Abstract Background Sleep, a process that restores the body’s ability to self-regulate, may be one important factor affecting self-care behaviors and blood glucose (BG) levels. The link between sleep quality, self-care behaviors, and BG levels may occur by sleep-altering daily self-regulatory failures. Purpose This study examined whether the relation between sleep quality and self-care behaviors occurred through self-regulation failures and whether the relation between sleep quality and BG levels occurred through self-regulation failures and self-care behaviors sequentially. Methods One hundred and ninety-nine adults with type 1 diabetes (T1D) completed an online questionnaire for 14 days in which they reported sleep quality, self-regulation failures, and self-care behaviors. BG levels were gathered from glucometers. Analyses involved multilevel mediation models and focused on daily within-person and between-person variability of sleep quality. Results Better daily sleep quality was associated with higher self-care behaviors at both within-person and between-person levels, and self-regulation failures mediated the association between daily sleep quality and daily self-care behaviors at both within-person and between-person levels. Better daily sleep quality was associated with better BG levels at the within-person level and self-regulation behaviors and self-care behaviors sequentially mediated the association between daily sleep quality and daily BG levels at the within-person level. Conclusion This study provides a process account of the importance of daily sleep quality of adults with T1D, as well as one potential mechanism—self-regulation—that may explain the effect of sleep quality on diabetes outcomes.