Impact of automated insulin delivery on subjective and objective sleep in children and young adults with very high HbA1c: Sleep outcomes from the CO-PILOT randomised controlled trial

Abstract

Aims

To assess how automated insulin delivery (AID) impacts sleep in young people with type 1 diabetes and suboptimal glycaemia (HbA1c ≥ 69 mmol/mol).

Methods

We conducted a randomised controlled trial comparing AID to usual care in 80 participants (aged 7–25 years) over 13 weeks. Sleep was a secondary outcome assessed at baseline and 13 weeks using questionnaires (subjective) and accelerometry (objective).

Results

All participants completed the trial; 64 provided subjective and 40 provided objective sleep data. Participants reported poor subjective sleep quality alongside high levels of sleep disturbance and sleep-related impairment at both timepoints. At 13 weeks, sleep-related impairment improved more in the intervention group than in controls (MD = −4.7; 95% CI = −8.7, −0.8; p = 0.02), with no between-group differences in other subjective measures. Accelerometry data showed the intervention group spent 21 more minutes awake after sleep onset (WASO) (MD = 21; 95% CI = 1, 41; p = 0.04) and experienced a 4 percentage point decline in sleep efficiency (MD = −4.2; 95% CI = −8.0, −0.3; p = 0.03), compared to controls after 13 weeks. These results paralleled substantial improvements in HbA1c for intervention participants compared to controls (MD = −34 mmol/mol; 95% CI = −43, −25; p-value <0.001).

Conclusion

Although AID improved some subjective sleep aspects, sleep efficiency reduced and WASO increased. The relationship between glycaemia and sleep remains unclear, suggesting that effective sleep improvement in young people with T1D may require multifactorial approaches extending beyond improving glycaemia.