• Posted March 30, 2026

Night Shifts Are Tough On People With Type 2 Diabetes, Study Says

Folks working a night shift have a harder time managing their type 2 diabetes, a new study says.

Health care workers with diabetes – mainly nurses and midwives – have blood sugar levels that fluctuate more widely during a night shift, researchers reported recently in the journal Diabetic Medicine.

This is likely due to the difficulty of maintaining a healthy diet when working the wee hours of the morning, researchers said.

“What struck me is that these are people who work in health care, yet they don’t have access [to] a healthy nighttime food environment or tailored dietary advice,” said lead researcher Rachel Gibson, a registered dietitian and senior lecturer at King’s College London in the U.K.

“These people might have been advised by their doctors to eat healthily to manage their diabetes, but if food choices are limited during the night, they might be unable to do so,” she said in a news release.

For the new study, researchers tracked 37 U.K. nurses and midwives for 10 days, monitoring them during night shifts, day shifts and rest days. The participants wore glucose monitors and activity trackers, and they kept regular food diaries.

Results showed that people tended to eat more calories on days when they worked the night shift, and that energy intake from sweet snacks was higher on a night shift.

Vending machines and 24-hour cafes typically offer high-sugar, high-fat foods, offering few healthy choices, researchers said. Many workers don’t have the time to prepare or store meals, forcing them to rely on these convenience foods.

Researchers also found that people working a night shift tend to be up longer, staying awake for around 22 hours compared 17 hours for a day shift and 16 hours on a day off. This might also impact blood sugar control.

Doctors treating people with type 2 diabetes might consider taking their type of work into account, Gibson said.

“Many clinicians don’t ask questions about work, despite this study revealing just how much of an impact someone’s nature of work can have on their behavior and dietary choices,” Gibson said.

More information

UCLA Health has more on the long-term health effects of shift work.

SOURCE: King's College London, news release, March 23, 2026