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      Lord Darzi’s report also contained a raft of measures aimed at improving the lives of Londoners, including mandatory “traffic light” nutritional information on menus in chain restaurants, restrictions on new junk food outlets opening near schools and a minimum alcohol price of 50p per unit to be piloted in boroughs affected by problem drinking.

He said his plans were “very applicable” to other cities and towns in the UK.

Mayor Boris Johnson said: “With a growing population and increasing pressure on budgets, it is critical that we do all we can to ensure that all Londoners, wherever they live in the capital, have access to high quality healthcare when they need it and better understand what they can do themselves to stay healthy. One of the glories of London is that we are generally pretty laissez-faire about how people live their lives – provided they do not break the law and provided they do no harm to others.

“If we were to consider a ban on smoking in parks, we would need pretty clear evidence that this would have direct health benefits – in other words, that it would actually save lives. It is time for London to have that debate.”

Sleep loss is widespread in modern society, but only in the last decade have we realized its metabolic consequences," Taheri said. "Our findings suggest that avoiding sleep debt could have positive benefits for waistlines and metabolism and that incorporating sleep into lifestyle interventions for weight loss and diabetes might improve their success."

Professor Taheri and his colleagues recruited 522 patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes mellitus in the Early Activity in Diabetes trial and randomized them into one of three groups: usual care, physical activity intervention, or diet and physical activity intervention.

Participants completed 7-day sleep diaries and calculated their weekday sleep debt. At baseline, the researchers recorded their height and weight to determine obesity status, measured their waist circumference for central adiposity, and analyzed their fasting blood samples for insulin sensitivity.

At baseline, compared with participants who had no weekday sleep debt, those who had weekday sleep debt were 72% more likely to be obese, and by the 6-month mark, weekday sleep debt was significantly associated with obesity and insulin resistance.

At 12 months, for every 30 minutes of weekday sleep debt at baseline, the risk of obesity and insulin resistance was significantly increased by 17% and 39%, respectively.

The authors advise that future interventions designed to slow progression or reverse metabolic disease should consider all factors -- including sleep -- that affect metabolic function. Looking toward future research, they recommend that consistent optimum sleep hygiene and education may be a key component of successful future trials in metabolic disease control.

Diabetes UK and UK National Institute of Health research funded this study.