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How much of an affect does tiredness have on Type 1?

M

Miss90

Well-Known Member
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223
Location
UK
Type of diabetes
Type 1
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Insulin
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Diabetes
I was wondering whether my constant work-related tiredness affects my diabetes or not?

I work two jobs and have one day off a week. I sleep on average 6 hours a night which for me is nowhere near enough for me and I always have some sure of a cold due to lack of sleep catching up with me.

But does lack of sleep actually affect my diabetes or am I just moody/irritable/bit of a b*tch due to lack of sleep!?
 
Hi @Miss90
I am not sure if there is a medically proven 100% link but from experience tiredness is a factor because with tiredness comes stress and stress is known to elevate BG's and elevated BG's are known to leave us feeling more tired.
I can't imagine that you leave work behind completely when you physically leave work -- so mentally the effect of work will spill over into your private life and therefore your D as well.
 
Thanks for replying... I absolutely do not leave work at work (I wish I could!!!) and stress about it for hours on end, never looked at it this way!
 
Tiredness makes you stressed which in turn effects bg levels, 6 hours sleep should be enough for most adults as long as its good quality sleep, if your bringing your work home and worrying about it then it will inevitably effect your quality of sleep.

I've been there burning the candle at both ends and its not nice @Miss90.
 
Slightly different experience but I've noticed that if my son gets us up in the night it can send my levels all over the place, could well be the areas of it though..
 
I find that tiredness, particularly disrupted nights or early mornings can put my blood sugar up. Even if I don't get stressed by it, I think the disruption affects the body and upsets control somewhat.

Just what I've found personally. And yes @staffsmatt i find the same with my son. A series of bad nights can mess up my control during the day sometimes too, like its pushed everything off balance.
 
I completely agree with the above statements.
An insomniac night gives me high readings throughout the day.

Tiredness from work and high levels of stress can also raise my blood sugar levels. My doctor explained that all the stress hormones released (like adrenalin) push blood sugar levels upwards while they also cause insulin resistance.
However, in my case, once stress is gone and I calm down, my blood sugar levels out.

I was once driving with a very safe level of 10. A serious accident happened in front of me.
Within an hour, my sugar level had shoot to an 18 and kept rising, due to the shock.

I do believe that blood sugar is always very affected by hormones (as insulin is a hormone itself) so, any kind of hormonal change (estrogen, testosterone, adrenalin, cortisol etc) can affect our sugar levels.

Regards
Josephine
 
staffsmatt said:
Slightly different experience but I've noticed that if my son gets us up in the night it can send my levels all over the place, could well be the areas of it though..
Click to expand...
I've been seeing if there's a link between raised morning levels and getting up during the night. I wake a lot during the night, as I have a dog who needs food during the night (he has ibd, needs food in his stomach, or he's sick). Some mornings my bloods higher than others. Does eating a carby meal/ milky drink in the evening cause this, or can it just be.
 
Pandle said:
Some mornings my bloods higher than others. Does eating a carby meal/ milky drink in the evening cause this, or can it just be.
Click to expand...

I think so: I don't seem to sleep anything like as well - and I definitely wake up in the morning with higher BG levels - if I have anything too carby in it during the mid to late evening.
 
If I had a carby snack or milky drink at night I'd wake up in the 20s... The only pattern I think I've found is that if we're up for a couple of hours (say 1 until 3) and then go back to bed that will probably have an effect. If we're just up early and don't go back to bed I tend to run OK. The main problem is that the effect isn't always the same so I can't just automatically rack my insulin up when it happens...
 
If I have a glass of milk before bed, my morning level will only be around 7, in fact, since diagnosis, I haven't been over a 9. I now realise how lucky (so far) I am. ...
 
Working with stress and woken at night due to 'hot flushes' caused my night time early morning Bms to be too high. Am now using pump so good improvement but factors above still affects this to some degree.
 
Hello,
Not scientific research, but I hardly slept at all last night and my blood sugars are struggling to come down as per normal today. on about double doses of insulin!!! Hadnt linked the 2 things but it could be
 
I recall when I was going through an insomniac period my blood sugars were terrible. I was sleeping around 2 hours a night then a full day's work for several months. I was led to believe that the body releases a substance called cortisol in response to stress , with insufficient sleep being a stress on the body. I can't sleep if my blood sugar is too low or high and am easily woken by blood sugar fluctuations.

Can't you modify your hours to get more sleep ?
 
Lack of sleep affects my blood sugars the next day terribly. I only need to lose out on what might seem a few hours to my husband but I'm like a rag the next day and my sugars are really high. I believe there's a definite correlation. This is why when I'm ill or stressed its a vicious circle as I sleep less and then my sugars are high. If my sugars are all over the place I test during the night and so it goes on.....
 
Thanks for comments been helpful to know seems to be connection,
 
Over a good few years I have had severely interrupted/no sleep caused by my neighbours above playing low frequency pulsating music (which they deny and blame wrongly on the people in the adjoining property) throughout the night. It didn't affect my fasting but perhaps the other readings on reflection. I started taking readings in the summer 2015.
 
Now managing a lot better extreme highs reduced as less stress, (stopped work as retired early) however even with pump and fasting bloods to set insulin ratio still find sleep prob causes unexplained increase in BM.
 
I don't think 'tiredness' really does much for sugars as I typically have many nights of little sleep with no ill effects, but i know stress has effects on BS.

If your staying up late for work, you are likely somewhat stressed as well - physically or mentally. This stress (which is different for everyone) can release cortisol, the amount again varies, and that (I am pretty sure i read somewhere) can lead to insulin resistance.

So technically - yes. it CAN lead to changes in BS. So i would say go ahead and stay up late, just do your best to de-stress.
 
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