Sugars and sleep

[woollygal]

So I’ve always been a good sleeper, when I was a baby apparently I had to be woken up to be fed and that really never changed (apart from the feeding). I could sleep for hours undisturbed and through e erything.
Since I moved to this place (which coincided within days with being diagnosed type 2 ) (well I don’t know when it started but it’s only since I’ve been here, so whether it’s 2 years or one year I’m not sure).
I was fine getting off to sleep, usually instantly but I couldn’t stay asleep. So I’d be waking up at say 3 am if I was lucky I’d get back to sleep but quite often I couldn’t. But I was always waking up at say 5 then 4.30am and was always exhausted but just couldn’t stay asleep.
Didn’t matter what time I went to sleep still woke up same time.
but since the new year when I have dropped my carbs even lower ( I now don’t have carbs at all at breakfast or another meal and only have 2 hot chocoates and limited carbs the other meal) my snacks are carb free if I need them.
But since then I have literally been sleeping for England. It can’t be the lockdown because I’ve had two lockdowns and nothing changed in them at all. The only thing that has changed is my carb intake. so could carbs have been mucking up my sleep?
Now I am in lockdown and obviously because not working at all there is no stress there but that didn’t matter in the last two lockdowns.
Funnily enough if I do have a meal that is higher in carbs (I make a butter chicken curry with shop sauce and a stir fry) they have about 20-30g of carbs in that meal. My sugars don’t react at all, and are within the range. But it does interrupt my sleep slightly.
I will try and keep a diary because if it is that I’ll have to think of who to cut them a bit more.
I’m going to be around 10-10.30 and I’m sleeping till 6 which in itself is a miracle and then I’ll go to loo go back to bed and sleep for another couple of Hours. It’s fabulous because I do love my sleep. But it’s very strange.
But after the ramble, do carbs affect sleep? My sugars don’t go stupidly high but they can be in the 9s or 8s.
Since I’ve cut down carbs that has improved a bit as well.

 

[Deleted member 527103]

I find I wake and can't get back to sleep if my blood sugars are high (over 8 affects me).
So, if your lower carb diet is reducing your blood sugars, it makes sense.

I also cannot sleep if my blood sugars are hypo low. But as a type 2, I guess that is less likely to affect you.

 

[woollygal]

I find I wake and can't get back to sleep if my blood sugars are high (over 8 affects me).
So, if your lower carb diet is reducing your blood sugars, it makes sense.

I also cannot sleep if my blood sugars are hypo low. But as a type 2, I guess that is less likely to affect you.

Thanks that’s interesting.
It never occurred to me that it might affect my sleep because if I’m higher I generally feel shattered!
Another sign to look out for which is helpful.
Fingers crossed it is that and it continues

 

[MrsA2]

I have read elsewhere that it can be the other way round, that poor sleep affects bg levels

 

[Lamont D]

So I’ve always been a good sleeper, when I was a baby apparently I had to be woken up to be fed and that really never changed (apart from the feeding). I could sleep for hours undisturbed and through e erything.
Since I moved to this place (which coincided within days with being diagnosed type 2 ) (well I don’t know when it started but it’s only since I’ve been here, so whether it’s 2 years or one year I’m not sure).
I was fine getting off to sleep, usually instantly but I couldn’t stay asleep. So I’d be waking up at say 3 am if I was lucky I’d get back to sleep but quite often I couldn’t. But I was always waking up at say 5 then 4.30am and was always exhausted but just couldn’t stay asleep.
Didn’t matter what time I went to sleep still woke up same time.
but since the new year when I have dropped my carbs even lower ( I now don’t have carbs at all at breakfast or another meal and only have 2 hot chocoates and limited carbs the other meal) my snacks are carb free if I need them.
But since then I have literally been sleeping for England. It can’t be the lockdown because I’ve had two lockdowns and nothing changed in them at all. The only thing that has changed is my carb intake. so could carbs have been mucking up my sleep?
Now I am in lockdown and obviously because not working at all there is no stress there but that didn’t matter in the last two lockdowns.
Funnily enough if I do have a meal that is higher in carbs (I make a butter chicken curry with shop sauce and a stir fry) they have about 20-30g of carbs in that meal. My sugars don’t react at all, and are within the range. But it does interrupt my sleep slightly.
I will try and keep a diary because if it is that I’ll have to think of who to cut them a bit more.
I’m going to be around 10-10.30 and I’m sleeping till 6 which in itself is a miracle and then I’ll go to loo go back to bed and sleep for another couple of Hours. It’s fabulous because I do love my sleep. But it’s very strange.
But after the ramble, do carbs affect sleep? My sugars don’t go stupidly high but they can be in the 9s or 8s.
Since I’ve cut down carbs that has improved a bit as well.

Before my diagnosis, for years, my sleep deprivation was awful and very similar to yours around the same time as you.
I would nod off quite quickly when I went to bed. But by the early hours, I would be going the toilet and be wide awake, I would try and go back to sleep, most of the time to no avail, I would go down stairs and make myself a cuppa and switch on the television, but as there is not much on, I soon switched it off, this affected my life.
I had tests and not much help from my doctors, I had a apnea test in hospital, it wasn't, I couldn't understand it.
I have been most of my working life, on shifts and late nights early morning and I thought it was my body clock.
I also started having very vivid in full Technicolour dreams, and I would always remember them distinctly, this didn't help with my sleep or my wife's sleep.

As I said this went on for years, and nothing would help me.
That was part of my hypo hell.
I found that I had an intolerance to certain foods, so when I stopped eating those foods, the food I was eating definitely had an effect on my sleep.

So after diagnosis, I began to go low carb, and fasting and losing weight, and the dietary changes and healthy food for me, as my health improved my sleep deprivation improved, once I had stopped going hypo, most of the time, my sleep improved. And my dreams went away.
I found my balance of food and it worked for me.
Since then my sleep has been really good, seven hours at least a night.
Now that I have been retired, I have altered my sleep patterns even more, I now go to bed later, and have started sleeping for England. I have no idea why?
The only thing I can think it might be, is that being in winter and the long nights have had an effect sleeping in later.

The reason why is something to do after REM sleep, you go into deep sleep, it is the part of sleep patterns that will help you with repairing your body and your brain and it is then when if you get a good night's sleep, and you feel good and full of energy, you have had the deep sleep. If you wake up in the morning and you feel awful and tired, you haven't reached deep sleep.
Like I alluded to before, as the dreams in REM sleep woke me up, and then I couldn't get back off, this could be the reason why I felt awful, along with the hypos and poor health.
This might not apply to you, but understanding what sleep does for you, is crucial in working out why it is happening to you.

In my blog, in the blog forum, I have wrote about a few dreams that were significant to me.