Eat healthy food. Exercise regularly. Lose weight. These have all been good prescriptions for avoiding Type 2 diabetes. But new research might lead doctors to add another suggestion to the list.

Set your alarm clock back a bit.

That’s because research recently presented at the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting suggests that people who eat breakfast before 8:30 a.m. might be at lower risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.

More than 34 million Americans have diabetes, and 7 million of those don’t know it because they haven’t been diagnosed. The disease can be a killer, leading to cardiovascular problems, kidney disease, blindness and a host of other ills, if left uncontrolled.

Researchers analyzed medical and dietary data from over 10,000 adults over a period of eight years in this new study. Surprisingly, they discovered those early breakfast consumers had lower levels of blood sugar and less insulin resistance. Insulin resistance is when the body’s cells don’t react normally to insulin and so cannot adequately take up glucose from the blood.

Scientists suggested these findings might mean eating earlier could reduce the risk of diabetes.

The investigation was done to examine whether a time-restricted diet has any association with blood sugar levels. In such a diet, someone limits the hours of the day during which they eat. Eating, for example, might be restricted to 10 hours a day, or some other timespan.

The findings indicate, however, the duration of those time-restrictions was less important to blood sugar levels than when the meals were eaten.

So, enjoy an early breakfast. Your health risks may fall if you eat before the sun rises.