Drugs used to treat those with poor quality sleep may be effective in treating metabolic disorders, new research contends.

Researchers found that insufficient or disturbed sleep is associated with metabolic disorders such as type 2 diabetes and obesity. They believe addressing poor quality sleep in these individuals should be a target - and even treatment - of these disorders, according to a press release.

"Metabolic health, in addition to genetic predisposition, is largely dependent on behavioral factors such as dietary habits and physical activity," researchers wrote in the study.  "In the past few years, sleep loss as a disorder characterizing the 24-hour lifestyle of modern societies has increasingly been shown to represent an additional behavioral factor adversely affecting metabolic health."

"Addressing some types of sleep disturbance - such as sleep apnea - may have a directly beneficial effect on patients' metabolic health," researchers said in a press release.

But a far more common problem is people simply not getting enough sleep, particularly due to the increased use of devices such as tablets and portable gaming devices.

Furthermore, disruption of the body's natural sleeping and waking cycle often experienced by shift workers also appears to have a clear association with poor metabolic health accompanied by increased rates of chronic illness and early mortality.

According to the researchers, experimental studies are starting to provide evidence that there is a direct causal link between loss of sleep and the body's ability to metabolize glucose, control food intake, and maintain its energy balance.

"These findings open up new strategies for targeted interventions aimed at the present epidemic of the metabolic syndrome and related diseases," researchers said.

Ongoing and future studies will show whether interventions to improve sleep duration and quality can prevent or even reverse adverse metabolic traits.

Their findings were published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology journal.