Long Daytime Nap Is An Early Warning Sign Of Diabetes, Study Reveals

Do you nap more than an hour every day? A study indicates a link between napping too long and the risk of having diabetes.

The study was presented at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes in Munich. It was led by the researchers from the University of Tokyo. The researchers discovered that people who nap for more than an hour every day were 45 percent had an increased risk of acquiring type 2 diabetes compared with those who do not nap during the daytime. There is no link for those who naps for 40 minutes a day, according to BBC.

Naveed Sattar, the professor of metabolic medicine at the University of Glasgow said that it's likely that risk factors which indicate to diabetes also cause napping. He further said that this could involve slightly high sugar levels, which means napping may be an early warning sign of diabetes.

Meanwhile, Benjamin Cairns, a scientist from the Cancer Epidemiology Unit at the University of Oxford said that it can falsely appear that their disease followed increased napping, rather than the other way around. He further said that this could mean that long daytime naps seem to cause diabetes or other diseases, even when only the reverse is true, as noted by Medical Daily.

The researchers explained that having long naps could be a result of disturbed sleep at night, which is caused by sleep apnoea. This sleeping order heightens the risk of certain diseases such as cardiovascular problems, heart attacks, stroke, type 2 diabetes and other metabolic disorders. Likewise, sleep deprivation could also lead to increased appetite that could alleviate the risk of type 2 diabetes. On the other hand, having shorter naps would likely increase the alertness and motor skills.

According to American Diabetes Association, diabetes or also referred to as hyperglycemia is a disease that causes blood glucose (sugar) levels to rise than the normal level. The most common form of diabetes is type 2 diabetes. Those who are diagnosed with type 2 diabetes have insulin resistance.