A team of researchers re-analyzed a number of past studies and concluded that daytime drowsiness and long naps are heavily associated with an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
Analysts at the University of Tokyo reviewed over 10 studies that together included more than 250,000 individuals. They tried to look for associations between daytime drowsiness and napping and type 2 diabetes. They found that those who were sleepy during the day had a 55% higher risk of having type 2 diabetes that those who did not. In addition, those who took long naps (1 hour or more) daily had a 47% higher risk of having diabetes than those who took smaller naps or no naps at all.
The study was presented at the annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes in Stockholm, Sweden. Although the study doesn’t prove cause and effect, it shows an interesting association between sleepiness and diabetes. Further studies are required, but researchers claimed that their findings proved excessive sleepiness may be a warning signal for one’s health, considering the number of individuals.
Dr. Yamada Tomohide, researcher at the University of Tokyo, Japan, suggested that people who experience these conditions and cannot explain them to check for diabetes.
The good news is that the study also showed that there were no adverse links between naps shorter than 40 minutes and type 2 diabetes. Which is in agreement with previous studies that proved a daily nap of maximum 30 minutes improved motor skills and increased overall alertness.
Authors of the study said that the an excessive state of sleepiness appears when there are night time sleep disturbances, which could be caused by sleep apnea. Other individuals who are more likely to experience sleepiness during daytime are people suffering from depression. Researched showed that previous studies have associated before conditions like depression and sleep apnea with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes.
Dr. Tomohide also noted the possibility that people who tend to be drowsy or take longer naps during the day could already be suffering from some bad health.
Diabetes is one of the most widely spread disease in the world. It currently affects 386 million people worldwide, and it can lead to kidney failure, blindness, heart disease, and even death. The most common type of the metabolical disease is type 2 diabetes, which may develop when a person has high blood glucose, either because insulin isn’t produced in adequate amounts, or because the patient’s cells do not properly respond to insulin.
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