The fear

Lynz84

Well-Known Member
Messages
344
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Hi guys

I have developed a fear of hypoing during the night and as such, set alarms every night. Does anyone else suffer this? Any tips?
 

Daibell

Master
Messages
12,642
Type of diabetes
LADA
Treatment type
Insulin
Hi. Be aware that the body (liver) can be quite good at releasing emergency glycogen if needed. Also you typically wake up if too low. Obviously test before bed and avoid injecting fast-acting insulin too close to bed-time
 

Juicyj

Expert
Retired Moderator
Messages
9,016
Type of diabetes
Type 1
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Pump
Dislikes
Hypos, rude people, ignorance and grey days.
Hi @Lynz84 Good to hear from you, haven't seen you around in a while. So what's triggered this fear ?
 

Rylando88

Well-Known Member
Messages
87
Type of diabetes
Type 1
I get the fear as you call it before driving and also before going into the gym. This led to me over-testing my BG and having very sore fingers all the time as well as over treating low levels as I was testing too quickly after treating and not giving enough time for glucose absorption! I don’t have many tips other than maybe keep a record of BG readings in the time just before bed and look for any significant patterns or any correlation. Also maybe try running sugars slightly higher before you go to sleep (not too high obviously), just enough to reassure you that you will keep a balance during the night! With the alarms maybe start reducing the amount of alarms you set, gradually weaning yourself off setting them and getting yourself a good nights sleep! The last tip is more of a reminder that no matter what, you may experience a hypo in the night at some point but if you’re prepared (glucose nearby, people aware of the condition and symptoms, mobile phone handy etc) then there’s no reason that you won’t be able to get it corrected quickly and feel back to your normal self ASAP!! Hope this helps/reassures you in some way even if just a little :):D xx
 
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Diakat

Expert
Retired Moderator
Messages
5,591
Type of diabetes
Type 1
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Insulin
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The smell of cigars
Welcome back @Lynz84 - has a bad hypo played a part in this?
 

Lynz84

Well-Known Member
Messages
344
Type of diabetes
Type 1
I think thats generally my fear...that I wont wake up. Its maddening!
Hi. Be aware that the body (liver) can be quite good at releasing emergency glycogen if needed. Also you typically wake up if too low. Obviously test before bed and avoid injecting fast-acting insulin too close to bed-time
 

Lynz84

Well-Known Member
Messages
344
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Aw thank you so much for that! Really appreciate that xx
I get the fear as you call it before driving and also before going into the gym. This led to me over-testing my BG and having very sore fingers all the time as well as over treating low levels as I was testing too quickly after treating and not giving enough time for glucose absorption! I don’t have many tips other than maybe keep a record of BG readings in the time just before bed and look for any significant patterns or any correlation. Also maybe try running sugars slightly higher before you go to sleep (not too high obviously), just enough to reassure you that you will keep a balance during the night! With the alarms maybe start reducing the amount of alarms you set, gradually weaning yourself off setting them and getting yourself a good nights sleep! The last tip is more of a reminder that no matter what, you may experience a hypo in the night at some point but if you’re prepared (glucose nearby, people aware of the condition and symptoms, mobile phone handy etc) then there’s no reason that you won’t be able to get it corrected quickly and feel back to your normal self ASAP!! Hope this helps/reassures you in some way even if just a little :):D xx
 

Scott-C

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,474
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Hi, @Lynz84 , any idea whether you're eligible for libre on prescription?

If so, a small transmitter, MiaoMiao2, can be bought for about £139, it gets stuck on top of libre, reads it every 5 mins and sends the reading to a phone app, just like a cgm, and can be set with alerts which you can set at any level you want, for any time of the day, so if you drop too low while sleeping, say, 4.5 or whatever you choose, the phone rings.

It's a very effective safeguard against night hypos.

Here's the link if you're interested in this route:

https://miaomiao.cool/
 

Lynz84

Well-Known Member
Messages
344
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Oh my goodness scott thats incredible! Im actually getting a libre in 3 weeks and so excited. Have you used the other wee gadget too?
Hi, @Lynz84 , any idea whether you're eligible for libre on prescription?

If so, a small transmitter, MiaoMiao2, can be bought for about £139, it gets stuck on top of libre, reads it every 5 mins and sends the reading to a phone app, just like a cgm, and can be set with alerts which you can set at any level you want, for any time of the day, so if you drop too low while sleeping, say, 4.5 or whatever you choose, the phone rings.

It's a very effective safeguard against night hypos.

Here's the link if you're interested in this route:

https://miaomiao.cool/
 

Scott-C

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,474
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Oh my goodness scott thats incredible! Im actually getting a libre in 3 weeks and so excited. Have you used the other wee gadget too?

Sure have, quite a few of us here are using it. It's reliable.

Here's an example, pic below. The app the libre/MiaoMiao output from your arm is running to is an Android one, xDrip+, each blue dot is a 5 min reading, forming a trace over time.

Between 1am and 4am, my bg has trended down from 6 to just above 4 (basal probably needed adjusted or maybe I'd just been out for a beer...), so the phone then rings at 4am, wakes me, I have about 5g of carbs, and the line nudges back up to 6 over the next few hours.

That downtrend from 6 to 4 may well have ended up as a hypo, but it didn't, because my libre, transmitter and phone woke me so I could take some glucose.

You can also look back at the line and use it to figure out why something happened, to figure out ways to reduce the chances of it happening again - it makes many aspects of T1 much easier to deal with when you can see where bg has been and where it's going: you start to figure out ways of gently steering it in advance away from messy highs and lows, instead of retrospectively dealing with messes after they have happened.

This all helps reduce the psychological burden, fear and uncertainties of T1, just being able to see how bg is moving, so you can take small steps to guide it.

xDrip+ is here if you want to have a look at it, it'll run on a cheap Android phone:

https://github.com/NightscoutFoundation/xDrip/releases

https://jamorham.github.io/

There's a slight issue at the moment: it runs fine with MiaoMiao version 1, but MiaoMiao version 2 literally only came out a week or so ago, and the coding is still being updated so they will play together, but that's expected to be sorted sometime this month. Meantime, libre and MiaoMiao2 will work ok with MM2's inhouse app Tomato, but it's a bit basic compared to xDrip+.

Good luck, everyone loves cgm!

Screenshot_2017-09-27-18-03-45.png
 
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Lynz84

Well-Known Member
Messages
344
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Thats just brilliant! Thanks so much Scott!
Sure have, quite a few of us here are using it. It's reliable.

Here's an example, pic below. The app the libre/MiaoMiao output from your arm is running to is an Android one, xDrip+, each blue dot is a 5 min reading, forming a trace over time.

Between 1am and 4am, my bg has trended down from 6 to just above 4 (basal probably needed adjusted or maybe I'd just been out for a beer...), so the phone then rings at 4am, wakes me, I have about 5g of carbs, and the line nudges back up to 6 over the next few hours.

That downtrend from 6 to 4 may well have ended up as a hypo, but it didn't, because my libre, transmitter and phone woke me so I could take some glucose.

You can also look back at the line and use it to figure out why something happened, to figure out ways to reduce the chances of it happening again - it makes many aspects of T1 much easier to deal with when you can see where bg has been and where it's going: you start to figure out ways of gently steering it in advance away from messy highs and lows, instead of retrospectively dealing with messes after they have happened.

This all helps reduce the psychological burden, fear and uncertainties of T1, just being able to see how bg is moving, so you can take small steps to guide it.

xDrip+ is here if you want to have a look at it, it'll run on a cheap Android phone:

https://github.com/NightscoutFoundation/xDrip/releases

https://jamorham.github.io/

There's a slight issue at the moment: it runs fine with MiaoMiao version 1, but MiaoMiao version 2 literally only came out a week or so ago, and the coding is still being updated so they will play together, but that's expected to be sorted sometime this month. Meantime, libre and MiaoMiao2 will work ok with MM2's inhouse app Tomato, but it's a bit basic compared to xDrip+.

Good luck, everyone loves cgm!

View attachment 35481
 

Maddie55

Member
Messages
8
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Pump
Hi guys

I have developed a fear of hypoing during the night and as such, set alarms every night. Does anyone else suffer this? Any tips?
I used to, but now I keep jelly babies in a jar on the nightstand. That way I have something fast acting close to hand.
 

Marksman4519

Member
Messages
9
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Dislikes
eggs in any form but especially boiled, paying bills!!!
Hi guys

I have developed a fear of hypoing during the night and as such, set alarms every night. Does anyone else suffer this? Any tips?
Hi a long time ago a close acting friend found that having a small glass of milk before bed solved the problem. I use a Libre Freestyle sensor and found that doing the same my blood sugar stayed very level throughout the night.
 

bmtest

Well-Known Member
Messages
141
Hi

To me this is a classic its a fear that appears probably every 5 to 10 years and it can be likened to Dartitis where your playing darts like a pro and all of a sudden the dart does not leave your hand.

- Firstly if you day and routine varries and you are rushing around eating varied the problem occurs more often

- A bad episode of night hypo can trigger this making you err on side of caution then a string of high blood sugars follow a bit like a gunfighter loosing there nerve as you dare not adjust dose.

Therefore some risk analysis needs to be done to ease your mind and only you can do that for your set of circumstances, but basically totally up units at end of day that you have injected and rough count of carbs and its very rare a bad hypo will visit in night.

I sometimes as mentioned before go on how I feel so on going to bed I may have 10-30g of carb as safety measure on how I feel. Also I go to bed on blood sugar lever of 8 i have mentioned this in past but I will expand on this, it is a theoretical 8, I may do a reading before bed and had shock high reading of 22 for instance (i am not perfect). To counter this and do not follow this advice its only because I have been doing it 40+ years, I count up from 8 to 22 which is diff of 14 and my ratio is 1 unit of Novo rapid to drop blood reading by 3 points. So 14/3 = 4.6 therefore I will inject 5 units of Actrapid and my dose of Lantus and bang I am off to sleep with nice reading in morning below 6.

This method I have always used before pens came out using glass and metal syringe I picked the skill up from an SPR when helping them out with some research years ago in 1982, he did a test on my blood and said its too high for his experiments and fired in som actrapid and I thought I might as well do this also on daily basis if I get high reading.

So getting back to nightime fear sometimesto beat it you have to learn again control and gain confidence the older you get the fear of death or even hypo is non existant.

I have never passed out in all these years but the reason I mentioned my nightime technical adjustments is to warn you that once I must have mixed my small Novorapid dose with the Lantus dose of 18 units as I do them back to back.

What followed was a rough night at sea with the most severe hypo I had ever had it was mind blowing the wife and kids slept through it as usual after trying to shout them I went through half a box of shreddies with spoons and spoons of sugar and the tiled floor was a river in sweat, I did get a reading in 1.2 before I commenced the epic anti hypo session. On recovery you then have to calulate how many bowls of cereal milk and sugar you have had and then inject the Novorapid probably 10 units which is fear of fear as you have to go back to sleep and avoid high in morning.

In summary totally normal is this fear and it goes with sensible control and night hypos are rare you always wake up seating anyway and you body counteracts most small miscalculations.

Its never a dull day with type 1 and people never understand the detail.
 
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mentat

Well-Known Member
Messages
419
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Pump
I like to say — does worrying achieve anything? If not, don't worry.


Worry achieves things when you don't have good habits. It reminds you to check and double-check and spend alllll your time thinking about it. And worrying causes stress which upsets blood sugars!

Good habits, on the other hand, achieve results that are just as good, if not better. Ask yourself what actions you can take to minimise your risks, and take them. Ask yourself what you need to check, and how often you need to review things, and do it. Then stress less.
 
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