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Strange severe Night Time Hypos

Hi itconnor!

I really feel for you. I had a similar horrible experience two nights ago. I've been struggling with high BGs overnight for a while, but having gone to bed with 8.5, I woke at 2am with the most horrible metallic taste and my lips felt like they had ice cubes on them. I've had this a couple of times before - always at night and I know it means a pretty low BG. I tested at 2.2. Drank 100ml orange juice. Had a couple of biscuits - half hour later 4.1, so I had a small chocolate and another couple of biscuits and got to 6.8. I went back to sleep and woke in the morning with a bad headache and a 3.2. I'm wondering if the hot weather is causing the insulin to absorb differently. I'm blaming the Levemir rather than the Apidra - but I blame the Levemir for everything LOL

To be honest, I'd decrease the Levemir dose immediately. Nighttime hypos are scary. I always drop the evening Levemir dose by about 10% following a hypo like that - it just helps you get back on an even keel.

Take care
Smidge
 
do you do a lot of exercise during the day? Or have an active lifestyle?
I'm a gardener and when I get back from work at about 6pm a few hours later my sugars drop quite rapidly and I have difficulty getting them back up.
It's because after I stop working my body is still burning carbs and what not, so now I have to have some fairly fast acting carbs as soon as I finish work to stop me dropping so hard.
Just a suggestion?



Beth, Type 1 diabetic.
Or as my family call me 'Diabethic'
 
i went to bed without testing my blood sugars, i must have been low in the night because when i was woken up by my sister i started hallucinating because of my low blood sugars. It was really weird, i thought lots of people were coming towards me and i was somewhere else but my sister and my friend were just in my bedroom really confused??? Nobody else seems to have hallucinated before though?
 
This exact same scenario happened to me several months ago. I took my long lasting lantus last thing at night with a BG of around 9 (this was several hours after my novorapid, so no fast acting left in my system). I did not take the wrong insulin, dose, etc......but I woke 30 mins later with a BG around 2.1. I treated with a lot of sugar and was BG=1.9 10 mins later. Then followed a 2 hour battle to get my BG up to safe levels, my husband had the phone in his hand several time to call an ambulance. After several hypo treatments, cereal, orange juice, banana and a tonne of toast and jam, I finally made it to about BG=7, but felt sick with the amount of sugar and food I had to ingest.
I have some pretty big surface veins on my thighs, and that night I bled a lot after my basal dose. I concluded that that I put my basal into a vein, so rather than slow release, the whole lot dissolved straight into my blood stream and caused the severe hypo reaction. This has only ever happened to me once. I asked my consultant about what happened, she agreed the IV insulin was probably what happened. It is rare but possible.
Like you I did not sleep properly for about a week due to worry. Now I avoid veins and sleep soundly!
Hope this helps.
 
My experience with hypos and sleep disruption. It nearly ruined my life and no one would believe me. The dreams and visions with the blurred vision. The lack of decent sleep wrecked my daytime. I was angry and emotional as well as depressed. I ended up on sleeping tablets. It didn't help! Took off meds.
In honesty I thought I was losing it totally. Even when I did a lot of manual work, it didn't make any difference. Up half the night!
I finally got it sorted!
Usually it's the meds that are the cause of nighttime hypos. Too much or not enough, wrong meds etc. I use too have a low carb snack just before bed.


In my experience low carb recovery is usually more beneficial, than throwing high sugars down your throat. Because hypoglycaemics bounce up and down.
You could yo-yo all night between highs and lows.
Try and keep your blood levels at a normal level before you retire.
I'm not an expert on T1, but hypos, I've had plenty!
 
Hi There! Thanks for the reply. i have dropped my leimir and all insulin by a pretty large amount.

Dropped my night time dose to 2 from 30 and my morning dose from 18 to 14.

Strangely my Day time blood sugars have been a lot better and more stable since ive dropped the levimir which leads me to think i was on far far to much before.

ive been loosing good amounts of weight since ive been carb counting and think my insulin resistance is dropping. average Rapid dose is under 10 per meal. (normally around 6). however i have also had my peak on rapid around 2 hours in, but i seem to be noticing a second rapid drop at around the 3 hour mark as well now which is odd.
 
wow i never even though of this as a cause.

i do bleed regularly when i inject in my leg. i normally just do the stright top of my thigh, is there possibly a safer place with less change of hitting a blood vessel ?
 
I Wonder if the Hypo could have triggered some kind of Night Terror, if woken upbrubtly you can continue to dream while you are conscious, its a bit of a strange feeling often people experiencing this have the feeling off an "old Hag" type creature approaching them with a feeling of dread.
 
I have found that when injecting lantus it doesn't 'kick in' until 4 hours after injecting. It is supposed to be a slow working insulin but i have found it doesn't really do anything until that point then very quickly works like Novorapid.

This is why i am very very careful on how many units i inject in the evenings.

regards
 
itconor said:
wow i never even though of this as a cause.

i do bleed regularly when i inject in my leg. i normally just do the stright top of my thigh, is there possibly a safer place with less change of hitting a blood vessel ?
Click to expand...

I guess the majority of veins and capillaries are too deep or too narrow for this to occur normally. I am a very veiny person (if there is such a thing) I prefer to inject my lantus into my thighs and my basal in my tum, I just have a quick look before I inject. Try and hit the fatty part of your thigh, if you don't have a lot of body fat use a shortish needle (5mm). When I posted my hypo experience, many people did not believe it was possible to accidentally inject into a vein. But my hypo was so prolonged and required so much sugar to correct, that it is the only plausible explanation that I could come up with. It was a one-off, so try not to worry.
 
Hi Bonus, my understanding is that lantus activity has a minipeak at around 4 hour, which fits with what you experience. How many units do you inject and is it possibly too much? Do you see a tail off in activity before the 24 hours are up? I've just read that lantus can last as long as 36 hours in some people, so insulin stacking may be an issue.
 
After your sugar level as gone up always have a sandwich or some toast as you will need some long acting carb to cover
 
If you have lost lots of weight your long acting insulin may be too high.

I had a very stupid 'specialist' who put me on levamir/ novorapid and said its one unit of levamir per kg body weight per day. I was on 60 units of levamir for two years and hardly had a single jab of novorapid in all that time. My levels were awful, couple of hypos plus per day but it was always put down to the fact in busy on the farm. I'd go to bed with y sugars in double figures and they'd be 4-7 waking up. One night I went to bed with levels of 5 because I knew that's where they should be and if my boyfriend hadn't have been with me I would be dead now. They dropped like a stone and we should have rung an ambulance but never thought about it. I couldn't keep any good down so ate a bag of sugar. Scariest night ever. Went to the hospital the next day and sat down with another consultant who immediately dropped my levamir by two thirds.
I don't want to scare you, just share my story and maybe your levamir levels need looking at



Type 1 diabetic since 2007

Hba1c Oct '13= 58. March '13= 61
 
Could it have been the heat? Not sure it effects u this way but last week in scotland it was roasting for bout 5 days n i found 3 of them days i didnt need insulin as my bm kept going low even with carbs. Does heat effect sugar level in this way? For my own future knowlwdge


Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
 
Its not uncommon to have a false high then drop like a rock after drinking pop while in hypo - because you've given the both NOTHING to work with a shot of sugar does one thing it gives you the boost to get a balanced carb, fat and protein into you to keep the levels stable.

Having crackers and a protein such as PB, tofu, or the like, even hummus and veggies will work (or does for me)

I drink regular pop when working to give myself that false high because other wise I'd be on the ground (I run between 3.5 and 5 when working and that's with the regular pop and no fast acting insulin) having a carb and protein does help to keep things up, but with the work I do (I'm on my feet and moving between 7 to 9 hours a day and lugging upwards of 500 pounds of equipment) I'm doing eating enough just isn't much of an option (though protein shakes do work just not particle to keep around without the ability to keep them at a good stable temp).

Having protein bars on hand can also be a good option to eat after you've drunk the pop or OJ.
 
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