Type 2 Diabetics wake up at 3:00 am ?

[Omar51]

Most or a lot of diabetics wake up at 3:am, including myself. I wonder why. Any suggestions to go back to bed ?. My thanks for sharing your thoughts!

 

[Pipp]

Most or a lot of diabetics wake up at 3:am, including myself. I wonder why. Any suggestions to go back to bed ?. My thanks for sharing your thoughts!

Do you have evidence to support this theory of most or a lot of diabetics waking at 3am, @Omar51 ?

I know I don’t wake at that time.

 

[eventhorizon]

I used to wake around then. I quit drinking a few months ago and now normally sleep right though - unless my young kids have other ideas!

 

[Rachox]

Another one interested to hear where you found this fact. I don’t wake up at all in the night!

 

[Antje77]

I don't wake up at 3 AM either.

 

[Jasmin2000]

I sometimes wake at about 3-4 am if the dawn phenomenon is occurring as a BG >7 at night gives me a headache. Quite useful as I can then inject some fast acting to get it back down as well as go for a p.

 

[Omar51]

Do you have evidence to support this theory of most or a lot of diabetics waking at 3am, @Omar51 ?

I know I don’t wake at that time.

I don’t have evidence, I read a lot. I am glad you don’t wake up at that time.

 

[George775]

I can almost set my alarm to when I'll wake up to pee. Drinking water before bed or not seems to have little impact. Between 2am and 4am I spring to life only to pee and return to bed. Luckily I can fall asleep quickly again. Turning on lights wakes me up too much so I navigate with the help of a few strategically placed night lights.

 

[coby]

Most or a lot of diabetics wake up at 3:am, including myself. I wonder why. Any suggestions to go back to bed ?. My thanks for sharing your thoughts!

I wake at 3am too!
Isn't it strange how that happens.
Well I trick my mind I suppose in a way as I tell myself how lovely and cosy I am and how warm the bed is. Then I smile to myself, thinking 'It's only 3pm and I don't have to get up for ages yet' and then just go with my thoughts as I relax. I do NOT clock watch! Please try not to do that, but just concentrate on how comfortable you are and I always always ALWAYS go back to sleep. However I have a whole bed to myself and never need to get out for the toilet, so I guess those two things could hinder sleep for many?

 

[Pura Vida]

Most or a lot of diabetics wake up at 3:am, including myself. I wonder why. Any suggestions to go back to bed ?. My thanks for sharing your thoughts!

i used to, but since drinking a glass of warm water at 11pm at can sleep right through

 

[Sarah69]

I don’t even get up in the night!

 

[becca59]

Yes I do. But also often up at 1 and 5 as well. Came on in older age.

 

[Melgar]

I'm in the 3am wake up camp. It is the lowest point for my blood sugars in any given 24 hour period. If I'm having an hypo event I can guarantee it will occur around 3am.

 

[lovinglife]

I have chronic insiomnia and I can wake at 1 am, 2 am, 3 am etc, If I sleep 3 hrs in a row I’ve had a good night, my normal night is about 7 hrs in 1 or 2 hr stints with wide awake bits in between- my worse nights in no sleep at all. Last Saturday night I went to bed at 11.30 and finally got some sleep at 6am Sunday morning was up at 9.30 again.

Please don’t start and give me advice on sleep hygiene been there done it all nothing works. It’s a 30 odd year problem and I’ve learned to live with it. I could probably have better BG if I slept well but I probably never know

 

[LivingLightly]

Hi @Omar51. If waking during the night, for no obvious reason, this may be closely connected with your diabetes and changes in blood glucose levels, especially if it tends to occur at near enough the same time in the early hours of the morning.

 

[jessj]

I'm quite often still up at 3am or reading my Kindle. I have pain insomnia & am lucky to get 3hrs of very broken sleep a night, so I can't say it's diabetes that wakes me at any time or keeps me up come to that.

 

[Omar51]

Hi @Omar51. If waking during the night, for no obvious reason, this may be closely connected with your diabetes and changes in blood glucose levels, especially if it tends to occur at near enough the same time in the early hours of the morning.

Hi@LivingLightly.
I wake up at night to pee, sometimes twice a night and sometimes I sleep till 5-6 am. I am pre for about 14 years (no meds). Seems like it’s connected to my diabetes. Thanks for your help .

 

[Omar51]

Yes I do. But also often up at 1 and 5 as well. Came on in older age.

Indeed mileage!

 

[Duncan Lord]

Most or a lot of diabetics wake up at 3:am, including myself. I wonder why. Any suggestions to go back to bed ?. My thanks for sharing your thoughts!

If it’s Type 1 related, it will be either a hypo or a hyper!
If the basal insulin is not adjusted correctly, then a hypo is likely. It’s been injected at say 9:00 or 10:00 pm so will be working nicely, bringing BG down. The meal will have been mostly digested by this time, so down we plummet towards hypo zone.
The Dawn Phenomenon usually starts to lift BG between 03:00 and 06:00 preparing the body to get up and go get breakfast.

Therefore 03:00 is a “great time” for a hypo.

On the opposite side it could also be a hyper due to the proteins breaking down slowly following the evening meal. The protein spike comes anything up to about 6 hours following the meal, depending on the fat content.

 

[Case_]

Waking up in the middle of the night is fairly likely to be connected to your blood sugar suddenly dropping either too quickly or just generally getting a bit too low. Either of those is fairly likely for a Type 2 diabetic - the first one is because your body keeps producing insulin to deal with the spike (if not hyper) following dinner and it keeps accumulating and takes a while for the body to stop once the BS gets into normal range, which produces a sharp drop that causes the body to "panic" (and the subsequent response is what wakes you up). It can even cause a short hypo (even though by the time it wakes you up and you check your BS, you might be back to non-hypo levels as if nothing happened - these are the worst).

And as mentioned, even if the above didn't happen, you can simply be getting a bit too low during the night if you didn't eat too much or you last ate long(ish) before going to bed, especially if you're on a medication that promotes insulin production.

In the first case, adjusting how much you eat before bed and what you eat exactly (preferably something that doesn't spike you too much and helps "mellowing out" the BS spike) should help. In the second case, eating a snack just before bed could help as well - just don't eat a lot, it should just be a snack, not a full meal, and have something that's mostly protein and/or fat to not cause a spike instead, the goal is to flatten your BS for the duration of the night as much as possible.