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This is not supposed to happen on Metformin alone.

R

Rosie9876

Well-Known Member
Messages
271
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
This is the 4th night of five I've apparently had a hypo. I was awoken at 2 a.m., feeling sick with a blinding headache, BG 2.9. Not feeling up to going down to the kitchen, not wanting to wake the grandkids. I ate the only suitable food in the room - dark chocolate. Now, 40 minutes later, it's 3.9.

I don't know how seriously to take this. @KennyA replied in an earlier post that he's had apparent night hypos while not on insulin or other medication known to cause it. I haven't been fasting, in fact I had too much carb at dinner and my BG shot up. I didn't have a nightmare. What can be going on?
 
As it happens, I had an episode last night around 4am - heavy sweating, nightmares, woke up not knowing where I was. On this occasion, I didn't even get up and managed to get back to sleep quickly. Not using a CGM so no idea what my BG was.

I still don't really know what's going on. In my case it's clearly not medication related. It does seem that it is something to do with the endocrine system with the observable effect being a fall in BG, but there are a few ways (in theory anyway) this could happen.

The research I linked to earlier showed that 14% of the non-diabetic people taking part in the study had a hypo episode in the few weeks the study ran. So it's far from uncommon, but still unexamined.
 
could this extreme hot weather have anything to do with this ?
If anything I have been the opposite my levels have been higher I only use insulin(s) though
 
Rosie9876 said:
I'm sorry to hear you've had another episode, but this is so helpful to know, thank you. I'm feeling quite bewildered. Do you think it might be connected to the heat wave?
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It has nothing to do either with my temperature or the ambient temperature. I've woken soaked and very cold in mid-winter, and not had any sweats in 40C heat. When they happen, my head does not sweat at all. There appears to be no consistent pattern. I'll not have one for a couple of months, and then have a run of six or seven nights of sweats, sometimes with one night in the middle mysteriously free. The only thing I would note is that the sweats do not seem to happen singly - if I've had one, I'll probably have a few others in the nights to come, but (as above) sometimes with a night off in the middle of the run.

Food/no food, some carb/no carb, alcohol/no alcohol, after exercise or after a lazy day - simply unpredictable. There might be a common factor but if so I can't find it. They have continued since around 2013 or so, both while my BG was out of range (up to 2020) and since levels have been normal (2020 onwards). So I can be fairly sure it's not related to current blood glucose levels, although of course elevated BG might have caused it originally.
 
KennyA said:
It has nothing to do either with my temperature or the ambient temperature. I've woken soaked and very cold in mid-winter, and not had any sweats in 40C heat. When they happen, my head does not sweat at all. There appears to be no consistent pattern. I'll not have one for a couple of months, and then have a run of six or seven nights of sweats, sometimes with one night in the middle mysteriously free. The only thing I would note is that the sweats do not seem to happen singly - if I've had one, I'll probably have a few others in the nights to come, but (as above) sometimes with a night off in the middle of the run.

Food/no food, some carb/no carb, alcohol/no alcohol, after exercise or after a lazy day - simply unpredictable. There might be a common factor but if so I can't find it. They have continued since around 2013 or so, both while my BG was out of range (up to 2020) and since levels have been normal (2020 onwards). So I can be fairly sure it's not related to current blood glucose levels, although of course elevated BG might have caused it originally.
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So possibly the heat spell is a coincidence to my hypos. But from what you describe, is the common factor that it happens while sleeping, so has to do with a sleep state? Mine have all been, except one, when i was very tired and just going to bed. I haven't had nightmares that I know of, or profuse sweating. Rather, wooziness, a strange feeling hard to articulate, and at times, a blinding headache. I never normally get headaches..

Last night I had yet another dip below 3.9, but I woke up when it had just started. I got up and the sensor began to go back to above 3.9. So, if it's induced by sleep, what can it be? Aren't any endocrinologists at least curious? It could be very dangerous if it doesn't correct itself or wake us up.
 
Rosie9876 said:
So possibly the heat spell is a coincidence to my hypos. But from what you describe, is the common factor that it happens while sleeping, so has to do with a sleep state? Mine have all been, except one, when i was very tired and just going to bed. I haven't had nightmares that I know of, or profuse sweating. Rather, wooziness, a strange feeling hard to articulate, and at times, a blinding headache. I never normally get headaches..

Last night I had yet another dip below 3.9, but I woke up when it had just started. I got up and the sensor began to go back to above 3.9. So, if it's induced by sleep, what can it be? Aren't any endocrinologists at least curious? It could be very dangerous if it doesn't correct itself or wake us up.
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I have also had a couple of hypos while awake - usually there have been other circumstances that fully explain those. From reading other people's accounts, it seems that hypos take many forms and your hypos will not be like mine necessarily, nor will my hypos always be the same. I don't really think I have any real knowledge of hypos etc in general - I know someone (T1) for whom four hypos a day is not unusual.

Personally I think (for me anyway) it's linked to what's usually called the dawn syndrome - where your BG starts to rise in the early morning thanks to liver action and the rise will tend to continue for some time. What I experience could be explained by (eg) me having 4am insulin over-production leading to lowered BG leading to my liver creating new glucose to address the deficiency. Insulin over-production could contribute to insulin resistance generally. That is "an explanation" that covers the observed facts but it doesn't tell you really how or why it happens, which to me is the important bit.

I guess it's not an issue because a) it's only been observed very recently, since non-T1 people started using CGMs in large numbers; b) nobody seems to be actually harmed by it or anyway not so much that they start using additional health care resources; c) it's basically "disorientation, nightmares and sweats" which are inconvenient and annoying but not (afaik) perceived to be life-threatening; d) there isn't any money to be made from developing something to prevent/stop it.
 
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