of symptom frequency. however, most studies did not have control groups, a randomized design and high alpha and beta error. hence, foster et al. showed in their randomized study that weight loss has a significant improvement of symptoms in obese obstructive sleep apnea patients with type 2 diabetes. sleep apneaobstructive sleep apnea sleep apnea is a sleep disorder which causes an individual to have short pauses in breathing or very shallow breaths while sleeping. these pauses in breathing can often cause the individual to wake up, snore, choke, or just generally disrupt their sleep. as a result, affected people do not get quality sleep during the night and are tired during the daytime. sleep apnea is very difficult to diagnose because doctors can't exactly tell if a person has sleep apnea in a regular routine visit. additionally the patient himself may not even realize he has sleep apnea because it occurs during sleep, so a partner or roommate is usually the first to notice symptoms. there are two types of sleep apnea, obstructive and central. obstructive sleep apnea is more common among overweight patients, and occurs when the airway is fully or partially blocked at times during sleep. any air that does sneak by the blocked passage can cause loud snoring. the second type of sleep apnea, central sleep apnea, is much more rare and has to do with the part of the brain that regulates breathing. the signal from the brain to the lungs is disrupted, resulting in pauses in breathing. treating obstructive sleep apnea is much easier than central sleep apnea, and the treatment plan may include things such as lifestyle changes, mouthpieces, surgery, and breathing devices since overweight is one of the most important risk factors for obstructive sleep apnea, weight loss interventions combined with active lifestyle counseling showed to be beneficial. a randomized control study showed reduced symptom frequency in patients who participated in a weight loss programm, combined with active lifestyle counselling. this intervention seemed to be beneficial for patients with mild obrustrive sleep apnea. the positive effects were maintained at 1-year follow-up sleep deprivation and type 2 diabetes baseline levels of insulin do not signal muscle and fat cells to absorb glucose. when glucose levels are elevated, the pancreas responds by releasing insulin. blood sugar will then rapidly drop. this can progress to type 2 diabetes. sleep loss can affect the basic metabolic functions of storing carbohydrates and regulating hormones. reduction of sleep from eight hours to four hours produces changes in glucose tolerance and endocrine function. researchers from the university of chicago medical center followed 11 healthy young men for 16 consecutive nights. the first 3 nights, the young men slept for the normal 8 hours. the next 6 nights, they slept for 4 hours. the next 7 nights, they spent 12 hours in bed. they all had the same diet. they found that there were changes in glucose metabolism that resemble that of type 2 diabetes patients. when the participants were tested after sleep deprivation, they took 40% longer than normal to regulate blood sugar levels after a high-carbohydrate meals. the secretion of insulin and the body's response to insulin decrease by 30%. sleep deprivation also alters the productions of hormones, lowering the secretion of thyroid stimulating hormone and increasing blood levels of cortisol. it has also been shown that when slow-wave sleep was suppressed for three nights, young healthy subjects were 25% less sensitive to insulin. they needed more insulin to get rid of the same amount of glucose. if the body does not release more insulin to compensate, the blood-glucose levels will increase. this resembles impaired glucose tolerance, which can result in type 2 diabetes. sleep in the media as obesity has become an issue of nationwide focus, media sources have begun to explore and report on the link between sleep and weight. the coverage spans from articles in women's health magazine on "6 ways sleep can help you lose weight," to npr's story on the research linking a lack of sleep to obesity, to harvard school of public health's discussion of sleep as an "obesity prevention source" on their site. although it is often presented like this in the media, sleep is not a universal solution to obesity, direct evidence for losing weight because of sleeping more does not exist. rather there are several aspects of sleep deprivation that might contribute to weight gain. horne (2008) claims that especially for short sleepers, who normally sleep 5 hours per night, to sleep more will not be a working strategy to lose weight, since habitually short sleep develops over many years.