Sleep problems

[BottomlessPit]

Hi
I was just looking for some advice on how to combat waking up at 3am every night. I was diagnosed during pregnancy which I think was a misdiagnosis and the hospital thinks I may now have MODY. I am awaiting genetic testing results. I managed my diabetes with diet for around 3 years with a low carb diet. The nurse told me I was on course for remission. Last year my hba1c had shot up to 60 without any change in diet. I don't know if this is an after effect of having COVID? The GP put me on metformin immediately but I kept waking up multiple times in the night. I was switched to gliclazide and I couldn't sleep at all. I can no longer tolerate my previous diet. If i was to have cauliflower rice and homemade curry, my blood sugars would be high. I cut back to keto and stopped taking the gliclazide and I do Hiit training but my blood sugars were still high. The hospital started me on Linagliptin last week and now I wake up every night at 3am. I am debating to stop these as I need my sleep. Does anyone know if taking the medication at a different time would help? The nurse did say I may just need insulin with my meals but I'm not back at the hospital for 3 months. She also said that my body does produce insulin so I'm confused. I'm worried about long term complications as I had a letter to say they had found retinopathy. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[zand]

My BGs took over year after covid to return to what was normal for me. Sorry I can't advise on the rest of your post though. I hope someone else can.

 

[BottomlessPit]

Thank you for your reply. It gives me hope that mine may return to normal.

 

[Resurgam]

I did - I suspect - have Covid before and when I fell ill just before Christmas the symptoms were very familiar. Both times my blood glucose went up far more than it should have - I did not test the first time, and the GP did not bother to tell me that my Hba1c was high. By the time I found out it was just that the nurse mentioned my Hba1c was back to normal numbers.
I did make a rather pointed observation that it was a good thing diabetes was unlikely to cause any sort of problems so there was little point in even checking levels. My numbers are perhaps a bit higher than usual, but it is only a few weeks since I was unwell.
We think we had the Omicron version, and if I'd still been working I'd have not taken time off, but being retired now, I had a couple of mornings in bed.

 

[sunspots]

When you wake at 3am (sounds soul destroying!) could you take a dose of Phenergan to help you drift off again? I know it isn't solving the waking part though. I don't have any bright ideas for that. But it might settle given time.

One other thing occurs to me - is your mood ok? Early morning waking can be a sign of depression and responds to treatment for the depression if that is what is causing it.

I hope it clears up soon. Take care.

 

[Fenn]

Hi, I feel like an expert on sleep problems but really just understand how horrible it can be, may I ask, are you testing when you wake at 3am? I hypo at that time of the morning, I mentioned this to my DSN this past week and she said that 3am is naturally our low point, not sure if this is correct but hypos can wake me, which leads me onto recommending trying a Freestyle Libre if you can afford it, even if just for two weeks to see what your Blood is doing when you are not testing.

Being told you are overproducing insulin, this could be, “you are type two, therefore you overproduce insulin” if you have not had a blood test for this, it could just be an assumption, I believe you would need a C-peptide test but there could be alternative tests?

Finally I would suggests googling the symptoms of sleep apnea, I have recently been diagnosed and am being treated for this, it has made a big difference to my sleep, I was completely oblivious to in my case severe apnea.

Good luck finding some answers, it is horrible

 

[BottomlessPit]

When you wake at 3am (sounds soul destroying!) could you take a dose of Phenergan to help you drift off again? I know it isn't solving the waking part though. I don't have any bright ideas for that. But it might settle given time.

One other thing occurs to me - is your mood ok? Early morning waking can be a sign of depression and responds to treatment for the depression if that is what is causing it.

I hope it clears up soon. Take care.

Thank you for your reply. I would prefer not to take medication to sleep as I don’t want to become dependent on it. My mood is generally fine although the lack of sleep starts to take it’s toll and I worry how I’m going to get things done with the sleep deprivation. Does having a snack before bed help anyone sleep through?

 

[BottomlessPit]

Hi, I feel like an expert on sleep problems but really just understand how horrible it can be, may I ask, are you testing when you wake at 3am? I hypo at that time of the morning, I mentioned this to my DSN this past week and she said that 3am is naturally our low point, not sure if this is correct but hypos can wake me, which leads me onto recommending trying a Freestyle Libre if you can afford it, even if just for two weeks to see what your Blood is doing when you are not testing.

Being told you are overproducing insulin, this could be, “you are type two, therefore you overproduce insulin” if you have not had a blood test for this, it could just be an assumption, I believe you would need a C-peptide test but there could be alternative tests?

Finally I would suggests googling the symptoms of sleep apnea, I have recently been diagnosed and am being treated for this, it has made a big difference to my sleep, I was completely oblivious to in my case severe apnea.

Good luck finding some answers, it is horrible

Thank you for replying. They are offering a 14 free trial on freestyle libre so I may have to give it a go. I haven’t been testing when I wake as I didn’t want to disturb my husband but I will have to. I think it must be hypo’s as I wake up sweating sometimes. Maybe a snack before bed will help.
I don’t think I have sleep apnea as I don’t generally snore or have the other symptoms. It feels like no matter what I do it causes problems elsewhere. At least I’m getting more sleep than on the metformin and gliclazide.