Insomnia a symptom of Diabetes?

You need your gp to give you an hba1c to give you an idea of where you are.

Personally I have never experienced insomnia. I fall asleep very easily as soon as I get in bed. I wake once for a bathroom visit, then straight back to sleep. At least 8 hours, no problem.

The only thing that can confirm or reject your diagnosis is your HbA1c. I cannot stress how important this number is. It should be below 42 mmol/mol for non-diabetics and 48-59 mmol/mol target range for diabetics. My HbA1c upon diagnosis was 134 mmol/mol.

Fasting blood sugar is not that helpful because there are many factors that can influence it at a given time e.g. stress, illness, liver dump. Although anything above 11 would be concerning.

If anything my symptoms were increased tiredness especially after I ate. Your cells require insulin to use the glucose in your blood except your brain and liver which can use the glucose without insulin. The absence of insulin means your cells don’t receive glucose so despite eating, your body is basically being starved which is why diabetics experience increased hunger and tiredness since the cells are demanding more energy and tries to compensate for the energy deficit by breaking down muscle and fat. Although it really does depend which type of diabetic you are if you are at all as type 2 is almost entirely lifestyle based

When I had high BG levels I was fighting to stay awake almost all the time. I slept many hours. Now I have normal levels I frequently stay awake all night. It is as though my internal clock is making up for lost time and running on a longer daylength than 24 hours.
As I don't need to be anywhere at particular times it doesn't matter if 6 am is the beginning or end of my waking hours. At the moment I am going to bed at the crack of noon. It will slowly get later until I sleep at night in the normal hours, and then, gradually get later again. I don't regard it as anything needing correction, it is just how I work at the moment.

In general, high blood sugar makes me sleepy and lethargic. The only insomnia related issue I've had related to diabetes would be restless leg syndrome, but that's not quite the same thing as just insomnia.

People are suggesting that you have an HbA1c test done. That is a good idea, because it will give an overall indication of whether your blood glucose is higher than normal, on average, and by how much.

But if you want to know exactly what is going on, at the time you have the insomnia, then you need a home meter to test your blood glucose at the time.

Of course - and this is said fairly tongue-in-cheek - the simplest solution is to avoid eating anything sugary if you intend to sleep

My own experiences of insomnia are that caffeine, stress (both good and bad), and magnesium deficiency play a far greater part in sleep patterns than blood glucose. Although a rapidly dropping blood glucose will often send me into a deep and muggy sleep, while sleeping hypos are often accompanied by pretty horrific nightmares.

Neutralview43 said:

Hello, so I'm experiencing a problem atm. Whenever I eat a sugary food, no matter what time of the day, at night I can't sleep at all

On the days I avoid sugar completely I'm able to sleep. It's weird because I didn't' have this problem before

I used to be able to eat sugary food ( some days I used to eat a lot even at night) and I was still able to get some sleep

I've searched on google but nowhere does it say that insomnia is a symptom of diabetes or prediabetes

So is this a symptom of diabetes? High blood glucose levels?

Click to expand...

Brunneria said:

People are suggesting that you have an HbA1c test done. That is a good idea, because it will give an overall indication of whether your blood glucose is higher than normal, on average, and by how much.

But if you want to know exactly what is going on, at the time you have the insomnia, then you need a home meter to test your blood glucose at the time.

Of course - and this is said fairly tongue-in-cheek - the simplest solution is to avoid eating anything sugary if you intend to sleep

My own experiences of insomnia are that caffeine, stress (both good and bad), and magnesium deficiency play a far greater part in sleep patterns than blood glucose. Although a rapidly dropping blood glucose will often send me into a deep and muggy sleep, while sleeping hypos are often accompanied by pretty horrific nightmares.

Click to expand...

Neutralview43 said:

Hello, so I'm experiencing a problem atm. Whenever I eat a sugary food, no matter what time of the day, at night I can't sleep at all

On the days I avoid sugar completely I'm able to sleep. It's weird because I didn't' have this problem before

I used to be able to eat sugary food ( some days I used to eat a lot even at night) and I was still able to get some sleep

I've searched on google but nowhere does it say that insomnia is a symptom of diabetes or prediabetes

So is this a symptom of diabetes? High blood glucose levels?

Click to expand...

Brunneria said:

People are suggesting that you have an HbA1c test done. That is a good idea, because it will give an overall indication of whether your blood glucose is higher than normal, on average, and by how much.

But if you want to know exactly what is going on, at the time you have the insomnia, then you need a home meter to test your blood glucose at the time.

Of course - and this is said fairly tongue-in-cheek - the simplest solution is to avoid eating anything sugary if you intend to sleep

My own experiences of insomnia are that caffeine, stress (both good and bad), and magnesium deficiency play a far greater part in sleep patterns than blood glucose. Although a rapidly dropping blood glucose will often send me into a deep and muggy sleep, while sleeping hypos are often accompanied by pretty horrific nightmares.

Click to expand...

Yes indeed had 7 nights of restless when I went very low carb

Caffeine after 2pm is a problem for me. No coffee or caffeinated tea after 2pm and I sleep much better. That's just my experience.

I'm a type 1 and sleep like a log

Danita1967 said:

Yes indeed had 7 nights of restless when I went very low carb

Click to expand...

Your thread title suggested that you thought diabetes/pre-diabetes causes insomnia.
But now you are saying that you think it was the dietary change rather than the diabetes causing restless sleep?
Could you clarify?

Geordie_P said:

In general, high blood sugar makes me sleepy and lethargic. The only insomnia related issue I've had related to diabetes would be restless leg syndrome, but that's not quite the same thing as just insomnia.

Click to expand...

Hi Insomnia also pins needles in hands and ant crawlong sensation

Brunneria said:

People are suggesting that you have an HbA1c test done. That is a good idea, because it will give an overall indication of whether your blood glucose is higher than normal, on average, and by how much.

But if you want to know exactly what is going on, at the time you have the insomnia, then you need a home meter to test your blood glucose at the time.

Of course - and this is said fairly tongue-in-cheek - the simplest solution is to avoid eating anything sugary if you intend to sleep

My own experiences of insomnia are that caffeine, stress (both good and bad), and magnesium deficiency play a far greater part in sleep patterns than blood glucose. Although a rapidly dropping blood glucose will often send me into a deep and muggy sleep, while sleeping hypos are often accompanied by pretty horrific nightmares.

Click to expand...

Lockdown covid 19 is also causing insomnia uncertainty etc

Danita1967 said:

Yes indeed had 7 nights of restless when I went very low carb

Click to expand...

Also when i went sugar zero sweats headaches no sleep