Besides having a profound effect on your energy level as well as your emotional and physical state, it turns out that getting enough sleep may in fact lower your risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

Also known as adult onset diabetes, type 2 is the most common form of the disease. It occurs when the body is no longer able to properly process sugar in the blood, and is considered non-insulin dependent because the pancreas is still functioning properly. The problem is that the insulin (a hormone that is responsible for processing sugar for the cells to use as energy) that it produces is no longer doing its job, a condition known as “insulin resistance.” It is usually associated with diet and lifestyle, and while it occurs mostly in people over the age of 40, it is becoming increasingly prevalent in children.

Type 1, or juvenile onset, diabetes, is actually insulin dependent. It arises from a malfunction in the pancreas, which no longer produces insulin, and patients must instead have regular intake of the hormone. Type 1 diabetes is found in both children and young adults.

According to the CDC, last year, over 24 million people in this country were affected by diabetes, which translates into 8% of the population and an increase of 3 million from the previous year. It is the 7th leading cause of death in the U.S. and can lead to serious health complications including coma, heart disease, kidney failure, blindness, amputation, and impotence.

And while both types of the disease are treatable, there is a wider range of options for type 2 diabetics. In fact, when proper steps are taken, medication can be avoided altogether. These measures primarily entail changing one’s lifestyle through diet and exercise. And now, quite possibly, how much sleep you get.

In the study in question, doctors followed individuals over six years and, after adjusting for health, weight, and age, found that those who averaged less than six hours of sleep per night during the work week were five times more likely to have abnormal or elevated levels of glucose in their blood (also known as impaired fasting glucose), a condition that can precede type 2 diabetes.

What this implies is that getting enough sleep could affect more than just your state of mind, it could very well have profound consequences on your overall health. In a way, this makes a lot of sense. After all, what is the one universal activity that everyone partakes in when they are not feeling well, regardless of the source of the malaise?

Why, it’s sleep, of course. It’s what your body hungers for it needs to restore and repair itself.

Furthermore, who amongst us hasn’t experienced firsthand the negative physical and emotional effects from fatigue? Just talk to any parent of a newborn and see for yourself. When you really get down to it, along with sex and eating, it’s one of the top three activities in our lives, and yet, in the frenetic world that we live in, it is almost as if we wear our sleep deprivation as a badge of honor, going to extreme lengths to maintain it.

So do yourself a favor, and get plenty of sleep. While the relationship between sleep deprivation and diabetes is still being investigated, you and I both know that, irregardless what they say, sleep does us a world of good.

We don’t need an expert to tell us that.