More than a third of people with type II diabetes also suffer from obstructive sleep apnea, a disorder in which people wake up during the night because of pauses in their breathing while they sleep. Researchers at the Whittier Institute for Diabetes in California found that older men with diabetes were more than twice as likely as women to have trouble sleeping. They recommend that doctors screen diabetic patients for the sleep disorder, as past research has shown than sleep apnea treatment may also helps reduce blood sugar levels.