Is napping making you sick?

Short naps can jump start our bodies and recharge our brains when we don’t get the recommended eight hours of rest at night. In fact, studies show we are more creative and productive with as little as 30 minutes of daytime shut-eye. In the 1990s, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration even discovered 26-minute naps can help flight crews stay alert longer.

But a more recent study presented at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes meeting in Munich, Germany revealed naps may be making us sick.

As part of the Japanese study, Dr. Yamada Tomohide, from the University of Tokyo, looked at more than 300,000 people in 21 published studies. He found a possible link between naps that last an hour or longer and a 45 percent higher risk of blood sugar disease. But if you snooze less than an hour, the risk disappears, the research suggested.

During a recent presentation, Advocate Trinity Hospital pulmonologist and sleep specialist Dr. Olusegun Apata explained the link between lack of sleep and heart disease and diabetes.

“Naps do not cause diabetes. What causes diabetes is the underlying reason for the nap. Short sleep time, shift work or disrupted sleep from obstructed sleep apnea can all cause obesity and increase your risk.”

The American Diabetes Association says type 2 diabetes is the most common of the two forms of diabetes and is usually associated with people who have poor diets and don’t get enough exercise. Symptoms appear when the body doesn’t use insulin efficiently to control blood sugar or glucose, which, left unchecked, can lead to serious illness and even death.

Advocate Trinity diabetes educator Rose Bernard says are our bodies need adequate rest to function properly. “It’s wise to get quality sleep at all times,” she says.