Recently I've been experiencing a lot of anxiety, panic attacks and upset during the late evening and just before going to bed as for most days of the week at night it has been taking me 1 to 3 hours to go to sleep due to the sudden onset of hypoglycaemia after resting for a matter of minutes. These hypo's are different to the usual hypo that I may experience at other hours of the day as it takes up to 45 minutes for liquid glucose (typically orange juice) to increase my blood sugar levels. Having to wait for such an amount of time to achieve a normal blood sugar level leaves me feeling agitated and wound up making it difficult for me to relax and, well, sleep! As the hypo usually makes me sweat and tremble this also disrupts the process of getting some sleep.
Because I have experienced this agitation most nights over a very long period of time I am finding that I feel panicky/jumpy and very nervous when it gets to "bed time" and often have irrational thoughts such as "I'm going to die from sleep deprivation". I try to curb the panic by distracting myself with music, but have also took an obsessional interest in learning when neighbours typically go to bed (they typically turn their lights off if they have!) to work out if I'm the only one still up with what is increasingly looking like secondary insomnia.
I'd be interested to know if anybody here has experienced sleep problems or disruption due to problems relating to their diabetes and, if applicable, what you have done to tackle the problem. I used to get to sleep quite quickly but sometimes awoke in the early hours with the shakes from a low blood sugar; now though, my problem is getting to sleep .
Mark.
Because I have experienced this agitation most nights over a very long period of time I am finding that I feel panicky/jumpy and very nervous when it gets to "bed time" and often have irrational thoughts such as "I'm going to die from sleep deprivation". I try to curb the panic by distracting myself with music, but have also took an obsessional interest in learning when neighbours typically go to bed (they typically turn their lights off if they have!) to work out if I'm the only one still up with what is increasingly looking like secondary insomnia.
I'd be interested to know if anybody here has experienced sleep problems or disruption due to problems relating to their diabetes and, if applicable, what you have done to tackle the problem. I used to get to sleep quite quickly but sometimes awoke in the early hours with the shakes from a low blood sugar; now though, my problem is getting to sleep .
Mark.