Diabetics with irregular sleep schedules that diverge from their internal body clocks may be at increased risk for dangerously high blood sugar, a small study suggests.

Much as jetting across time zones can force a person to wake-up, eat and work at times that conflict with their body’s idea of what time it is, so-called social jet lag happens when social pressures like work or school cause people to be active at times that conflict with their natural internal clock. In the study, researchers measured social jet lag by tracking the degree to which people followed one sleep schedule on work days and another on days off.

The study team found that diabetics who had social jet lag of more than 90 minutes tended to have higher blood sugar than their counterparts who didn’t experience as much variation in their bedtimes and wake-up times on work days and non-work days.