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High Blood Sugar and Nightmares??

Emmotha

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,123
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Hi,

For the last couple of days I have struggled to get my BG down. It's my own fault I know why it's happened, how to stop it.
Anyway, I corrected before bed, but still went to sleep with high BG with an alarm a couple of hours later to test and correct again if need be.

But what I have noticed, is that when I go to sleep with high BG, I get really bad nightmares! With really complicated plots and then I wake up and can't get back to sleep.


Does anyone else get this?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
That can happen. For any reason, be it hi or low BS. I know I hardly dream anymore and no idea why.
 
I find I have very strange dreams if my BS is high or low at somepoint in the night - I could go to bed with a BS of 6, have a fantasticly odd dream, and wake up in the morning knowing my BS will be high and find it is! I wouldn't say they were nightmares just really odd...............but may be thats just me!

If my BS is pretty level all through the night I wake feeling I didn't dream or if I did nothing amazing.
 
I just must be knackered all the time. I rarely remember dreams.
 
I often have crazy dreams but never thought about any connection to my BS - will think about it next time!

Is it possible it's the other way around though? i.e. the scary dream triggers adrenalin and a glucose dump which makes you high??
 
BeccyB said:
Is it possible it's the other way around though? i.e. the scary dream triggers adrenalin and a glucose dump which makes you high??
Click to expand...

Almost certainly, I had a bad dream a few weeks ago and my wife woke me up, I went to bed in the late 5's and woke in the 9's, usually my bg levels won't fluctuate much more than 0.5 - 1.0mmol/l when asleep.
 
I did think about it, and before I was diagnosed I used to dream a lot, and when I am well controlled, not so much.

My dreams are crazy, like really in depth plots that I couldn't even invent when awake. The higher my BG, the crazier the dream!
 
I once had a dream where the plot/storey line was amazing and thinking to myself I must write this down it would make a good book/film and I'd be famous from it.................you all have never heard of me have you? I promptly forgot the storey line!

But agree the dream could be the cause of the rise.
 
Interesting idea! I have had vivid dreams for years now, first caused by medication I started before the millennium, so I don't think they are related to high BG. But I've recently had dreams about diabetes, checking BG and pricking my fingers as described in this thread.

EDIT: Oh, and my OH has to suffer through my descriptions of the latest night-time movie plot...
 
I had a very vivid dream before diagnosis and have often wondered if it was my subconscious mind trying to tell me something. In this dream I was being chased down a street by a giant mug of cadbury's hot chocolate who was trying to steal my bottle of water...was diagnosed just two weeks later
 
LOL @Natalie1974 - wasn't ALDI or Tescos or any other supermarket brand, it had to be Cadbury's ?! you should have realised there and then!
 
Definitely related in my experience... I went through a rough patch where my blood sugars were constantly high. And suffered from OHS, Sleep paralysis, and bad dreams... I only realised the connection when I started testing regularly again...
 
I've never had this fortunately, but if my sugar is high it can make it harder for me to sleep.
 
Yep!

I have really bad nightmares whenever I am higher then normal, or lower then 4.5 ish... I use it as a literal wake up call to eat or bolus if ever I am awakened with a crazy complicated plot line in my dreams haha

Sometimes they are really very cool dreams that i thoroughly enjoy! So its not all bad haha
 
Haha yeah it's like having a cinema in your head. The depth of the plots sometimes is astounding
 
I sometimes have what I refer to as bad dreams and strange dreams...but have never linked them to high or low blood glucose levels, more to the time of the year and the events that have happened in the past. However, I guess that perhaps the blood glucoese levels could be a contributing factor.
 
Hi, I have been having weeks of both nightmares and just plain weird dreams nightly. Had recent HBA1C and my BG is gradually improving down from 11.7 to 8.7 due to change of diet. Discussed reason why I wake up with very high 10 - 13.9 on occasions BG and believe I dip to a low in the night which causes my system to dump glucose which brings me up to scary levels, all levels out after I've eaten. Suggested a snack before bed might even out the peaks so am trying this out now, will let you know if it improves!
 
yes, both highs and lows affect my dreams. Sometimes the intensity and clarity of the dreams are extreme.
 
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