Do you get enough sleep? Doctors say you should be able to get 6 to 7 hours of sleep nightly. 

Dr. Ajay Chaudhuri, medical director of the Diabetes and Endocrinology Center at Kaleida Health, says type 2 diabetes is extremely common in the U.S. - 1 in 8 people have it, and the average in Western New York is slightly higher than that.  

Type 2 diabetes occurs when the body can’t use insulin, a hormone that reduces blood sugars, which makes the body resistant to insulin. Dr. Chaudhuri breaks down a recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Network Open, which he says shows that 5 hours or less of sleep is associated with the risk of diabetes. The study also looked at the effect of a healthy diet. 

"Usually when you follow a healthy diet, that reduces your risk of developing diabetes," he said. "But in this study, what they saw was that in spite of following a healthy diet, the shorter sleep duration, less than five hours still increases the risk of diabetes"

Dr. Chaudhuri says following a healthy diet for those with type 2 diabetes is still really important.

Dr. Chaudhuri says there’s a lot you can do to figure out your risk. For those who are at risk fo developing diabetes, you can take something called an At Risk Test on the American Diabetes Association website. You can also get a blood test done to see your blood sugar levels.

To reduce your risk, Dr. Chaudhury says lifestyle changes like maintaining a healthy weight and physical activity can make a difference. He says walking 30 minutes every day can reduce the risk of developing diabetes by 58%.