Insomnia and Cardiometabolic Health: Bridging the Sleep Deficit to Disease Prevention.

Insomnia a condition marked by difficulty initiating or maintaining sleep, or early morning awakenings despite an adequate opportunity for adequate rest. It affects up to one-third of adults, with around 10% meeting the criteria for insomnia disorder. Emerging research increasingly points to insomnia as a significant, modifiable risk factor for cardiometabolic diseases, including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease, and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD). This narrative review synthesizes the latest evidence linking insomnia to heightened cardiometabolic risk, especially type 2 diabetes. Additionally, we discuss how sleep deprivation influences metabolic processes and cardiovascular health, emphasizing the association between insomnia and cardiometabolic disease. Despite its prevalence and clear impact on health, insomnia remains trivialized, underdiagnosed and inadequately managed. Only a minority of individuals seek medical advice for sleep disturbances, highlighting an urgent need for improved screening and management, particularly for those with cardiometabolic conditions. This review aims to provide healthcare professionals with practical recommendations for identifying and managing insomnia, a underrecognized way to ultimately reduce the burden of cardiometabolic diseases. Integrating sleep health into cardiometabolic care will represent a significant step forward in reducing the global burden of chronic cardiometabolic diseases.