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Insomnia and diabetes



Before I was diagnosed with T2 I could sleep for Britain, I was a guarantee for a Gold Medal. Now I wake periodically to pee and I will have one decent nights sleep followed by 2 or 3 very bad nights. The good night's come when I'm exhausted. Just part of the condition together with old age I guess, I'm 61.
 
I am similar to Polarice although aged 72! How can I get a better sleep? (see Diabetes UK's email of 7/2/19) .If you could email me a response that would be most helpful.
Richard
 
richard odell said:
I am similar to Polarice although aged 72! How can I get a better sleep? (see Diabetes UK's email of 7/2/19) .If you could email me a response that would be most helpful.
Richard
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I find alcoholic beverage at night helps me sleep soundly without mishap. I seem to forget everything... Funny That! However it does leave me with a problem I have difficulty getting the booze in the first place and smuggling it past she who must be obeyed. BTW - I think drinking whisky strait is a clue. Beers may contian too much liquid and require micturation in the night, but of course there will be increased risk of flooding.
 
There is evidence that the population in general is Magnesium deficient and that this is more relevant to those with diabetes, as Mg++ is anti-inflammatory. Mg++ blood testing is pretty useless as it doesn't measure the total pool.
There is evidence that Mg++ relieves anxiety and promotes sleep.
It seems that it might be difficult nowadays to acquire enough Mg++ from one's diet as food crops are grown in Mg++ deficient soils.
So, what about supplements?
I take CoQ10 & PQQ supplements as I developed an increasingly severe myopathy, neuropathy & others, after 18 months of Simvastatin. It took another year to start shaking off the toxic Statin effects, there was no immediate benefit but I'm sure it was a genuine response.
In the case of my 2 x Mg Citrate 500mg tabs daily, after around 3 weeks my sleep started improving, which fits in, if a deficient Mg++ pool is present in the body. This sleep improvement has persisted and I now frequently sleep through the night undisturbed.
I think this effect is genuine and not a placebo response.
Give it a try. Magnesium is safe, apart from those with severe renal failure.
 
I was overweight as a result of/as a cause of my T2 and as a consequence I had obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) so my sleep patterns were very poor although I was unaware of it, just permanently tired. OSA was diagnosed and CPAP prescribed, my sleep was wonderful with CPAP, very rested in the morning. I did occasionally wake, before loosing weight, with hypos but as soon as they were treated I rapidly went back to sleep.

I reduced carbs and lost considerable weight. As a consequence my Hbac dropped to pre diabetic levels. I was tested for OSA, at my request, by oxygen saturation levels overnight with no CPAP, and was discharged as no longer having OSA. I no longer use CPAP and I have slept the sleep of the just until recent surgery. I am now waking once or twice a night. HBac is still pre diabetic.

The moral of this diatribe is poor sleep may be the result of OSA rather than diabetes particularly if you are overweight. OSA is nasty, insidious, dangerous if you drive or operate machinery and will leave you totally exhausted if untreated.

This has been pasted from another thread.
 
hi bittern did you used to have leg cramps as well before you took the magnesium ? Sorry bittern this was to cap in m
 
I sometimes wake around 3 in the morning, and at that time I am sometimes too hot.
I'm not too hot at any other time, so I wondered if it was tied in with a liver dump.
It may be that I need to pee, but I can often go back to sleep after 30 minutes without going to the loo, so there is something strange which is waking me up.
 
I don’t think insomnia is solely down to diabetes, it’s more to do with lifestyle, work, stressors and other factors I would say after talking to people 95% of the population have some form of sleep problem.
 
Yes I have struggled with insomnia really badly due to being diabetic it is actually quite common gor diabetics so have a disruptive sleep pattern even my mum had same problem unfortunately I’ve had to take medication zoplicone from my GP to get at least a couple of hours sleep
 
bulldog1956 said:
they also say I have sleep apnea
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Hi bulldog, welcome to the forum. That's worth being tested for. When I told my GP that I woke several times a night to go to the loo, she almost insisted it was sleep apnea, I was pretty sure it was waking to go to the loo. I was referred to a consultant and the test involved wearing one of those things on your fingers to check your oxygenation overnight. Pleased to say it wasn't sleep apnea, just waking for bathroom visits.
 
Peter5145 said:
I have switched from having coffee to Ovaltine before going to bed,
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When you lie down at night it becomes easier for the circulatory system to work. The fluid is absorbed back into your blood and filtered out through the kidneys, which then sends it to the bladder as urine. This means that your bladder fills as you sleep much more quickly than it normally would. It might be worth trying to avoid all liquids late evening. Something else you might like to look at is hydration. I think diabetics tend to drink more liquids and as a result maybe slightly over hydrated. You can record how

much you actually drink during the whole day or even check the colour of your urine.
 

Exactly this happens to me.
Once I steered using the Libre I discovered that my blood glucose dips to its lowest number of the day at around 2.30 am. Sometimes this is the low 2s mol/l (if you trust the Libre at such low numbers, which is debatable)

Then a liver dump is the knock on effect.
Often waking sweating and from a vivid dream.

Further experimentation led me to discover that the depth of the dip and the intensity of the ‘stressed’ wake up is directly proportional to the amount of carbs the previous day. With the least carbs giving the best sleep.

Of course, your mileage may vary.
 
The insomnia has in fact got considerably better since I first mentioned it, although I'm still not sleeping as well as I'd like. It's obviously not solely due to getting up for a pee as some nights I sleep much better than others with no apparent link to what I did the previous day. It's generally recognised that, as you get older, you sleep less and more fitfully anyway.

I have been prescribed Phenergan to help me sleep, which is normally given for hay fever and travel sickness, and is basically the hay fever tablet that does make you drowsy. This does pretty much ensure that I get a decent night's sleep, but I'm wary of using it more than once a week as there's a risk of building up a tolerance. I generally only use it if I've had two nights' poor sleep in a row.
 
 
I've had type 2 diabetes for 18 years never stop me from sleeping sometimes I wish I didn't sleep so much I sleep in the afternoon and I sleep at night sometimes I can get up in the morning 3 hours later I could go a back sleep again so I don't think it's anything to do with diabetes
 
I have suffered with Insomnia for a good while now, but I have a touch phone and play utube radio dramas or music through my earphones this helps me to relax and eventually go to sleep. It slso helps with my tinnitus. Hope this helps.
 
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