Hypos untreated

I'm talking about the dreaded night time hypos.... what annoys me is I don't always get to treat them as I can be asleep when it happens and I don't wake up at all or only half wake up and fall straight back to sleep. I know about it though in the morning with that hypo hangover and the sugar levels sky rocketing. Lately I think I'm not getting to about 70% of my night time hypos. I should start testing between 2-3 am again. My problem is my other symptoms keep me awake so when I finally fall asleep I need to be asleep and **** diabetes has a way of misbehaving on me. I have just adjusted my basal dosage back down again, but got a hypo early this morning that I missed. Are you all good with catching your night hypos, or do you miss a lot of them like me?

Juicyj said:

Heya, the most important thing is to try and stop them happening, so keep dropping that basal but wait 3 days before making any adjustments. I know what you mean about not treating though as there have been times where i've been half asleep and acutely aware i'm low but I have tried to sleep it out, which isn't good ! Can you keep something close to the bed so you only have to stretch to your bedside to get some gel or a drink ? I also sometimes think I may of had one due to vivid dreams and waking high but haven't woken at all, generally your brain should alert you to them though.

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Thanks

Yes, I'm adjusting my basal back down after a rough few months with infections and migraines.

I think I will have to start remembering to test during the night. The problem is I don't tend to sleep for more than 3 hours at a time (that's a good sleep). I can be up every half hour to an hour. So when I finally get the good sleep it's when the hypos tend to happen on me. Of course when I'm up I'm usually a bit stressed out with something or rather going on so I'm not thinking about testing my sugar. Then also that could be an issue too... I'm more active at night than I should be and using more energy maybe. But I seem to hypo anywhere from midnight onwards in a 5 hour timeframe.

I did take a while to recover from this mornings hypo... the brain just doesn't adjust as quick as it used to. I figure I may have had it around 4 am or something... and I didn't come right until after 11 am.

Oh yes, I do keep a juice box by my bed but when I'm semi-awake with one I just literally fall straight back to sleep without even reaching for the juice. I do remember my head is spinning at the time, etc. Oh I hate that feeling.

novorapidboi26 said:

I can honestly say I don't have many, if any overnight.....

being on a pump makes this much easier but even on injections a split dose will usually makes the overnight portion of the day relatively straight forward to get right...

I have no doubt had some though that have just came and gone without incident.....

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That's good to hear.

I don't use a pump.

My endo won't let me split my lantus dose either. I have asked more than once. He is monitoring me still.

Thankfully I'm not having a hypo every night. It's just that I don't seem to always catch them when they happen.

CapnGrumpy said:

I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but I read that and thought "Who's diabetes is it?"

I've not used Lantus, but a split dose on Levemir is way more consistent than a single dose for me.

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Yeh I understand your point... but my endo insists I'm not to do it. He is still monitoring me. So if I go against what he is telling me to do then he won't be impressed. He's a highly qualified endo as well... teaches other docs to become endo's.

martineking said:

I suffer with night time hypo's all the time I've reduced everything down to the bare bones but still happens had a really bad diabetic clapse due to hypo at night was paralysed from chest down and if it was not for my little boy I would have died he is only six and called for the ambulance fed me jaffa cakes until they arrived unlocked the door and let them in and stayed with me until they arrived he is my super hero

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Oh bless your son... yes, definitely a hero. It sounds scary for you. I also can hypo on low dose of basal but mostly get high readings on low dose and that's why I increase the dosage. It doesn't seem to have any rhyme or reason to it at times. For example last night I dropped my basal further and this morning woke up too high for a morning BGL. So will wait a couple more days and if still high will have to adjust back up again I think. ugh. My endo wants me on low dosage of basal and just use more bolus. But that to me is risky using too much bolus... but I have had to anyhow lately. I think I still have insulin resistance going on too.

Dillinger said:

How can you be sure that you 'missed' a hypo and are not just going high overnight?

There used to be this idea that in response to a night time hypo your liver would dump glucagon and your blood sugars would shoot up (the Somogyi effect) but have a look at this from Dr Bernstein; a pretty convincing rubbishing of it.


What normally raises blood sugars in the morning is the dawn phenomenon which would require either additional bolus or depending on your overnight basal additional basal.

Lantus seems to cause a lot of people a lot of hassle. Levemir is, anecdotally, far less problematic and as has been said can be split; I'd push to have that and then you can get better control of your blood sugars over night.

Do test though as otherwise it's just guesswork.

Best

Dillinger

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Yeh I'm not too sure about that as I can tell you I'm off my face with the hypo hangover in the morning. I know what a hypo hangover feels like as I've had plenty of hypos. I also half wake up spinning out and fall back to sleep instead of treating so I'm aware I'm in trouble but just don't treat. My endo and my GP explained that the liver does dump and also explained that I am supposed to avoid hypos because the liver can fail to dump the longer you've had diabetes. I definitely know when I've been too low during the night. I should add that I've discussed it a few times with my type 1 friend and she's had type 1 over 30 years and she tells me she also gets the same thing. She had a CGM recently and she let me know she was going as low as 1 during the night and then she saw a big spike in glucose after that. She didn't wake up to treat all of them either she said. So the liver obviously does help.... oh yeh we're both on lantus for our basal. The only difference between us is she pumps her basal and I inject. She said the CGM helped her to readjust her basal.

maylou said:

How do u miss a Hypo thru the nite an wake up in the morning??
I have been having a lot of hypos in the early hours.... i start fitting, then im unconscious.... then the paramedics arrive and are here for an hour or more trying to revive me as my blood has gone down to 1.6....... Its so scary afterwards to find out wat has gone on ( x

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yeh I've never been unconscious... just asleep which isn't the same of course. My endo reckons looking at my day time BGLs and my hbA1c that I was having hypos at night. I said yeh I know I do have some (they're not that frequent).... then I got the lecture and that he wanted me testing at 3 am. But I'm dealing with other illnesses and it's really just pot luck a lot of the time as to what I get depending on symptoms going on and my pain level. But yes I know a hypo when I experience one and I usually take a lot longer to recover too when I don't treat the hypo myself.