I'd be very grateful if someone could offer advice about this - whether they think they know what the cause is, or things to try to see if it gets better.
Neither my GP nor doctors at the hospital could work it out.
It's all about dehydration and urination at night, but possibly *not* the usual two suspects for diabetics.
I think I can rule out high blood sugar levels. I did used to get up to pee and drink several times a night when they were well over 10 mmol/l. Then my levels dropped and I started to get decent sleep again. I was on Metformin then to help get the numers lower. On one occasion (when the new problem started) I took a bg measurement during the night after peeing and it was a good score for me, about 5 I think.
Then I stopped Metformin and tried to get healthy levels the natural way.
Then something happened which may or may not be relevant: Unwittingly, I probably entered fairly deep ketosis. I hadn't planned for it and didn't know anything about low-carb dieting and ketosis at the time. I'd just been "eating to my meter" and realised that I was extremely carb intolerant. So the carbs went down and down each day, and from memory one day they were less than 20 grams.
I've researched since then and gather that you expect to pee and drink a lot as you enter ketosis.
The thing that I experienced however was that during the day, things were normal. But it seemed like my body went into a very different state whenever I tried to sleep - within an hour or two, I'd be getting up to pee and drink - my mouth felt very dehydrated - lips sticking together, no saliva, couldn't swallow. Repeat at least every two hours during the night. As soon as I got up for the day, it stopped.
I suspected it was the change in diet so I upped the carbs a bit, but not hugely, I can't remember, I'm going to guess about 50-100 grams a day.
Then it got extremely bad - no exaggeration, waking up and rushing to get water just so I could swallow, peeing, this time with chest pains which may or may not be relevant, trying to get back to sleep and within half an hour doing the same, over and over. That day I was in hospital and they checked pretty much everything they check and were not sure what the problem was.
One doctor happened to be into "low carbing" herself and she suggested that it may be because I had entered ketosis then come out of it, and she said that in leaving ketosis, my body was trying to flush out ketones. She didn't seem at all sure however, and it doesn't explain having practically the same symptoms before leaving ketosis.
Since then the chest pains have never come back, but I've never had a decent night's sleep.
I probably varied between 50 - 150g carbs a day for a while after that, and on many occasions I woke up with a bone dry mouth, and my whole head felt like it was dehydrated, even my eyelids sticking to my eyes!
So the general pattern since then has been very disturbed sleep, due to regularly waking up with a very dry head, drinking and peeing.
Recently I upped the carbs largely for this reason and I hoped it would solve this. It does actually seem to have helped, in the last few nights I've just woken up 2-3 times for a pee and water, and I haven't had a scarily dry head - I can just about produce saliva if I try.
But I can't keep the carbs at that level, it's just too many to be able to keep my bg numbers healthy, so I'm reducing them again. I'm likely to be low-carbing as a way of life, but if it means I don't get sleep, I'll have to stop again. Possibly even up the carbs to unhealthy levels and go back on Metformin. I was getting good sleep on Metformin I seem to remember.
Some possibly relevant info:
* The entry into ketosis wasn't planned, I hadn't done the stuff I've since learned, such as taking magnesium, potassium and sodium supplements.
* I wasn't educated enough to have consciously tried to up the fats to replace the lack of carbs, all I was consciously doing was reducing the carbs to avoid big spikes. No idea what my 'macro ratios' were (and wasn't aware of the term at the time!).
* I did once, when trying an 800 calorie diet, use Ketostix and found the only time I urinated ketones was during the night, never the day, and there were more ketones in my urine as the night progressed. Maybe my body does the whole ketosis thing most strongly at night, whereas most people experience it during the day and are therefore awake and able to keep drinking water and not getting dehydrated?
* I've tried forcing down 3 litres of water a day. Makes no difference at all to what happens at night.
* I seem to enter mild ketosis at about 110g of carbs, I discovered this when doing the 800-calorie-a-day diet.
There are probably all sorts of other relevant things that I haven't mentioned, that's just what comes to mind. I'd be very grateful for any suggestions and they may make me remember other relevant stuff.
I may be misleading you by focusing on carb amounts, I don't know, but it does seem related.
Thank you.
Neither my GP nor doctors at the hospital could work it out.
It's all about dehydration and urination at night, but possibly *not* the usual two suspects for diabetics.
I think I can rule out high blood sugar levels. I did used to get up to pee and drink several times a night when they were well over 10 mmol/l. Then my levels dropped and I started to get decent sleep again. I was on Metformin then to help get the numers lower. On one occasion (when the new problem started) I took a bg measurement during the night after peeing and it was a good score for me, about 5 I think.
Then I stopped Metformin and tried to get healthy levels the natural way.
Then something happened which may or may not be relevant: Unwittingly, I probably entered fairly deep ketosis. I hadn't planned for it and didn't know anything about low-carb dieting and ketosis at the time. I'd just been "eating to my meter" and realised that I was extremely carb intolerant. So the carbs went down and down each day, and from memory one day they were less than 20 grams.
I've researched since then and gather that you expect to pee and drink a lot as you enter ketosis.
The thing that I experienced however was that during the day, things were normal. But it seemed like my body went into a very different state whenever I tried to sleep - within an hour or two, I'd be getting up to pee and drink - my mouth felt very dehydrated - lips sticking together, no saliva, couldn't swallow. Repeat at least every two hours during the night. As soon as I got up for the day, it stopped.
I suspected it was the change in diet so I upped the carbs a bit, but not hugely, I can't remember, I'm going to guess about 50-100 grams a day.
Then it got extremely bad - no exaggeration, waking up and rushing to get water just so I could swallow, peeing, this time with chest pains which may or may not be relevant, trying to get back to sleep and within half an hour doing the same, over and over. That day I was in hospital and they checked pretty much everything they check and were not sure what the problem was.
One doctor happened to be into "low carbing" herself and she suggested that it may be because I had entered ketosis then come out of it, and she said that in leaving ketosis, my body was trying to flush out ketones. She didn't seem at all sure however, and it doesn't explain having practically the same symptoms before leaving ketosis.
Since then the chest pains have never come back, but I've never had a decent night's sleep.
I probably varied between 50 - 150g carbs a day for a while after that, and on many occasions I woke up with a bone dry mouth, and my whole head felt like it was dehydrated, even my eyelids sticking to my eyes!
So the general pattern since then has been very disturbed sleep, due to regularly waking up with a very dry head, drinking and peeing.
Recently I upped the carbs largely for this reason and I hoped it would solve this. It does actually seem to have helped, in the last few nights I've just woken up 2-3 times for a pee and water, and I haven't had a scarily dry head - I can just about produce saliva if I try.
But I can't keep the carbs at that level, it's just too many to be able to keep my bg numbers healthy, so I'm reducing them again. I'm likely to be low-carbing as a way of life, but if it means I don't get sleep, I'll have to stop again. Possibly even up the carbs to unhealthy levels and go back on Metformin. I was getting good sleep on Metformin I seem to remember.
Some possibly relevant info:
* The entry into ketosis wasn't planned, I hadn't done the stuff I've since learned, such as taking magnesium, potassium and sodium supplements.
* I wasn't educated enough to have consciously tried to up the fats to replace the lack of carbs, all I was consciously doing was reducing the carbs to avoid big spikes. No idea what my 'macro ratios' were (and wasn't aware of the term at the time!).
* I did once, when trying an 800 calorie diet, use Ketostix and found the only time I urinated ketones was during the night, never the day, and there were more ketones in my urine as the night progressed. Maybe my body does the whole ketosis thing most strongly at night, whereas most people experience it during the day and are therefore awake and able to keep drinking water and not getting dehydrated?
* I've tried forcing down 3 litres of water a day. Makes no difference at all to what happens at night.
* I seem to enter mild ketosis at about 110g of carbs, I discovered this when doing the 800-calorie-a-day diet.
There are probably all sorts of other relevant things that I haven't mentioned, that's just what comes to mind. I'd be very grateful for any suggestions and they may make me remember other relevant stuff.
I may be misleading you by focusing on carb amounts, I don't know, but it does seem related.
Thank you.
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