Diabetes is a common condition of the modern world, with rates of prevalence on the rise. The International Diabetes Federation estimates that in 2019, 463 million adults currently had diabetes, with a projection for this to increase to 700 million people in the next 25 years. For Canadian adults, diabetes is the number one cause of blindness, end-stage renal disease, and amputations unrelated to trauma.

Hitting the hay, sawing logs, catching ZZZs— these are terms we use to describe sleep, but what is happening is more like a well-timed orchestra performance. Areas of the brain work in concert; some turn on and some turn off, directed by cues from light and chemical messengers called neurotransmitters. However, recent research suggests that sleep is not a process confined to the brain but that can receive input from the entire body, most prominently through the immune system.