• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Nighttime Hypos

M

Maddileigh

Member
Messages
21
Hi all.

Struggling today with a horrible hypo hangover. Something weird is going on!!

For the last 3 weeks I have been going hypo every night, not just a small dip but a significant one that is lasting for 2+ hours and not waking me up. I am having to set an alarm and eat every night.

3 weeks ago I was taking 24u of levemir at 9pm every night, after discussions with my DSN we decided to split the dose so I was taking 18 units PM and 6 units AM.

I have been decreasing this over the last few days as thoroughly fed up of the hypos. I'm down to 12units PM and 6 units AM and still having issues.

I am still having nighttime hypos and a significant amount of daytime ones too! I am wearing the libre which is telling me that in the last 7 days I have had 15 hypos (see pic!).

Last night I woke at 2.30am to a blood glucose of 3.1mmol. I went and at a huge bowl of cereal, around 45g of carbs as I decided I'd rather have a high than wake up on yet another low. 6.30am today I woke with a BG of 3.3mmol! I have no idea what is going on.

On the graph on the libre you can see that from the moment I fall asleep my BG starts falling and will stay that way all night, albeit a pre bedtime reading of 7.8mmol!

Has anyone ever experienced anything like this?!

f883bf963eb221231583b00f5cfd9522.jpg
277c1bfb8075fe300d740ad0ef83b0de.jpg
 
Hi,

Can I just check whether you are verifying these hypos with your normal glucometer?

The reason I ask is that I put on a new Libre sensor the day before yesterday, and have got these readings during the last two nights.





Normally, this would freak me out something terrible. But then I looked closely at the graphs and realised that the 'hypos' are coinciding exactly with when I lie on my left side, placing pressure on the sensor (this may be TMI, but I tend to sleep on one side till back/hip pain wakes me on a schedule, then roll over, and sleep til the next pain wakeup, so I am pretty sure of my timings)

Obviously your situation (insulin user, and still hypoing when you wake up) is a different situation, but I am just suggesting this as a possibility for you to consider and eliminate.

- I am giving this sensor one more night, then I will be ringing Freestyle and asking for a replacement sensor. I can only assume that there is something wrong with it, if a little pressure does this, and it is mucking up my readings and averages something rotten!
 
Hi @Maddileigh - I assume you take your Levemir at 11pm? It's highly unlikely that your levemir is causing that drop from injection, as it typically takes two hours to get up to full strength. Regardless of that, your graph says that the addition of the two doses of Levemir may mean that you don't need anywhere near as much as you are giving. For me, I used to require more Levemir during the day than at night (I used to take 14u at 7.30am, then 8u for the evening at 9.30pm), so it may be worth discussing this with your DSN. There is a received wisdom that you need more at night, and it is my opinion that this leads to overnight hypos.

What we can't see on your graphs is any boluses. If you have any of those prior to that time period, they also come into play.

What I'd strongly suggest you do is a basal test as this will give you a much better idea of whether you are on too much Levemir: https://mysugr.com/basal-rate-testing/
 
Hi @tim2000s. Thanks for the reply. I take my levimir at 9pm each night and then again at 10am. The last bolus I had last night was at 6.30pm when I had 8 units with my evening meal.

Basal testing seems like a good idea, I will definitely look into that!

I'm due to go in for surgery on Monday and worried at the moment regarding these hypos!
 
Maddileigh said:
Thanks for the reply. I take my levimir at 9pm each night and then again at 10am. The last bolus I had last night was at 6.30pm when I had 8 units with my evening meal.
Click to expand...
Okay - so that probably is the Levemir causing the drop. I think your issue is that your basal levels are wrong, so the basal test will help.
 
Brunneria said:
Hi,

Can I just check whether you are verifying these hypos with your normal glucometer?

The reason I ask is that I put on a new Libre sensor the day before yesterday, and have got these readings during the last two nights.





Normally, this would freak me out something terrible. But then I looked closely at the graphs and realised that the 'hypos' are coinciding exactly with when I lie on my left side, placing pressure on the sensor (this may be TMI, but I tend to sleep on one side till back/hip pain wakes me on a schedule, then roll over, and sleep til the next pain wakeup, so I am pretty sure of my timings)

Obviously your situation (insulin user, and still hypoing when you wake up) is a different situation, but I am just suggesting this as a possibility for you to consider and eliminate.

- I am giving this sensor one more night, then I will be ringing Freestyle and asking for a replacement sensor. I can only assume that there is something wrong with it, if a little pressure does this, and it is mucking up my readings and averages something rotten!
Click to expand...

Hi :)

Yes I always double check with my BG meter as I have had accuracy issues with the Libre too!

I have had two replaced sensors so far but they will only replace ime for significant discrepancies e.g. 3-4mmol.
 
@Maddileigh how long have you been diabetic?
My first thought was compression lows but thanks for confirming you do do a blood test to check.
 
Back
Top