There are a lot of articles around about the causes of type-2 (late onset) diabetes.

Missing the obvious fact it’s almost always about the balance between diet and exercise, a variety of factors are adduced for this tiresome disease.

Did you know that both lack of and too much sleep can tip you over the edge? Either option can make you far more likely to develop diabetes, according to researchers at the Universite Laval in Quebec, Canada. The results are published in the journal, Sleep Medicine.

Optimum sleeping times are seven to eight hours a night, they say. If you undershoot or exceed that, you are two and a half times more likely to suffer blood sugar abnormalities.

Researcher Angelo Tremblay says, “The risk remains significant even after a statistical adjustment for body mass index and waist circumference. … It is clear the recommendation to seek an optimal sleep duration seems to be appropriate, but for some individuals it is easier to say than do.”

One factor that isn’t mentioned is the differences between individuals. Such research often assumes that everyone’s reaction to stress is identical. It isn’t.

What’s your idea of a good night’s sleep? Is it seven, eight, nine, or even 10, or more, hours?

Well, it could be much less.

According to some authorities sleep is much overdone in modern times. Our ancestors made do on much less slumber at night. They were partly nocturnal and made up by napping for a few hours during the day.

The problem is that when we sleep, parts of our consciousness leave the physical envelope of the body. If that period is too long, it causes muscle inflexibility and, in some cases, lower mental performance.

It’s a well-known fact that an hour’s nap in the afternoon boosts our energy and overall thinking skills. NASA, which has studied the performances of astronauts in space, believes that a nap during the day is of immense benefit to everyone.

The optimum pattern of sleep would be four or five hours at night, plus a two-hour nap during the afternoon.

If pressures of work make that impossible, any system of splitting sleep up to reduce one big slab of unconsciousness will be beneficial.

For example, two periods of three hours is preferable to one of eight hours.

As people differ in their requirements, it’s a good idea to experiment with your personal needs, but a split sleep pattern may well deliver enormous benefits to your life.