In a representative sample of US adults, we found that markers of SDB including short sleep duration (≤5 h), occasional or frequent snoring (at least 3-4 nights/week), frequent snorting (at least 5 times/week), and frequent daytime sleepiness (at least 5 times/month) were associated with diabetes mellitus independent of age, sex, race-ethnicity, education, smoking, current alcohol consumption, physical activity, BMI, systolic blood pressure, depression, CRP and total cholesterol. The gene discussed is CRP; the disease is sleep apnea syndrome.