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The twilight zone - Waking with a hypo

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Welshboy82

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8
Hi guys,

First post here. My name's Luke, I'm a 28 year old, and I've been diabetic since I was 18 months old, so have never known life without it. Having been diabetic for so long, I admit I often think I know it all, but there is something that I wonder about, and wonder if other Type I's out there experience the same thing.

It's to do with waking with low blood sugar. Sometimes, I simply wake up, knowing I'm hypo, and in a perfectly sane frame of mind go and sort myself out. Sometimes however, I only half-wake, into some sort of hybrid dream-world that can be extremely confusing and upsetting. I'll lie in bed having bizarre hallucinations about things in the room, my body feels out of place or deformed, and I'll find myself having walked somewhere in the flat without any memory of the journey there. Thankfully, I ALWAYS eventually end-up in the kitchen doing something like pouring sugar into my mouth - as well as all over the floor! But these hypos take far longer to recover from, and leave me exhausted, and with a pounding head. There's also always a moment where I realise what's been going on, as though at that point I finally wake up, despite having had my eyes open all along.

I'd love to know why this only happens sometimes, whether it's to do with the point in your sleep cycle at which you "wake-up", or how low your blood sugar gets, and wonder if others have this same experience?


Thanks for reading!

Luke
 
Hi Luke,

I hear ya! :lol: all that you have described has happened to me in the morning, I've woken up and functioned normally although feeling 'low' and registering below 3 but then I've also woken and felt dazed and confused and have taken a while (sometimes hours) to get going and self correct. Obviously if my daughter or partner have been with me, they will offer assistance and won't leave me bimbling about! I will say however, my worst episodes of the 'Twilight Zone' have been when I was going through a hypo unaware phase, which is common in long term type 1's. Now I have my awareness back, I tend to fall into the waking low and feeling it category are you waking low on a regular basis? If so, then perhaps you should do some night time BG checks to pin point where you are dropping and then re-visit your basal rate (if that's possible).
 
Hey Debloubed,

Thanks for the response! No, I'm not getting them regularly, I'd say I have one of those twilight zone episodes every six months, and usually after exercise the evening before. But these are occasional blips in an otherwise (extremely fortunately) well controlled diabetes!

Also glad to know I'm not the only one, it does fascinate me as to why they're only occasionally like that.

Sorry top hear about this morning's bimbling!

Luke
 
Oh I wasn't bimbling this morning, but I have bimbled in the past :lol: I think you've hit the nail on the head with your exercise point, your BG can continue to drop for hours afterwards - I'm currently involved in a research study (working with Sir Steve Redgrave's Doctor no less!) and during testing my BG has dropped up to 3hours following exercise.
 
Hi,

I have had the odd waking hypo where I literally cannot move, can't open my eyes but usually manage to shout help and my partner thankfully rescues me, but these are quite rare, I'd say maybe 6-12monthly. All the rest I do tend to know when I'm hypo, or at least I have a gut instint to test my sugars and then I find out I'm hypo. Yours don't sound good though, has your diabetes team suggested reasons why this happens? Hope you find a solution

Jo
 
Yes I have definitely experienced this! Some nights I hypo, wake in the early hours of the morning thinking "I need sugar!", sort myself out and am absolutely fine afterwards. Other times I can be in a weird dreamy state, half awake, lie in bed for a long time before eventually it dawns on me that I should be eating. They are very weird, thankfully I don't get them very often either but when I do it can mess up the whole day. Like you, I don't know if it's to do with how low I am, or when I hypo, but I either way I'm not a fan! Little bit paranoid at the moment as I'm in the middle of my uni exams and I had one of these last week...completely wrote off my entire day as I was just feeling completely dazed and had a horrible headache that painkillers wouldn't touch, luckily it wasn't a day when I had an exam but I'm now very conscious of going to bed with a reasonable or even a bit high level to make sure I don't drop, I wouldn't have been capable of writing an exam that day!!
xx
 
Hey imalittlefishy,

Completely agree with your assessment with regards to them ruining your day! My most recent one came in the second week of a new job, meaning I missed a morning meeting, and then functioned terribly once I'd eventually dragged myself in to work. Ho-hum!
 
Quick answer, as in a rush, but there's simple solution to avoiding ending up on kitchen floor and ruining a night's sleep and next day - have sugar within reach of bed, so you don't have to leave bed, let alone bedroom / go down stairs etc. Personally, I hang a bumbag from my bedpost. It contains blood glucose test kit, insulin pens, glasses case & contact lenses, sweets and sqeezy pouches (15g CHO in 85g or 90g pouch, easy to open & cap recloses so no sticky pack left afterwards) - also ideal to keep near my head when camping or sleeping on floor or on bedside table when staying in other accommodation.
 
Hi Copecod, that is great advice but I think the OP was more about when you wake and are not able to reach across and get your glucose tabs/jelly babies or whatever as you are in a state of '*** is going on?!' it's happened to me and I have jelly babies in by bedside drawer, in my sock drawer and in my handbag which is next to my bed. In the past when I've hit the 'twilight zone' it's taken me a while before I have been able to realise that glucose is within arms reach!
 
I have on two occasions woken with what I call a 'nirvana hypo' - a bit like the twilight zone thing but just really, really positive. I woke up feeling as if I could do anything and I was completely at one with the world. It felt as if I could see into everything and understand why everyone was doing what they were doing, and there was nothing to worry about in the whole world. I woke up my partner and told him how wonderful the world is. He said 'it's 4am. You're hypo. Get some sugar down you'. I didn't want to because I was having too good a time.

But I did.

And then everything went back to normal.

I have a Type 1 friend who had described a similar experience so I know I'm not entirely unique on this but wondered if anyone here has ever had a 'good' hypo like that?
 
Hey Snodger,

Yes absolutely! Sometimes in those hypos I have music on and it's just clearly the most amazing, moving, profound sound I've ever heard. I've never done drugs, but I can imagine that these hypos are analogous to a drugs trip.

They're great, until the sugar-induced come-down!
 
Snodger, this is a very accurate description of me! When very hypo I think much more clearly and actually, dare I say it, quite enjoy it. I had to see a psychotherapist a couple of years ago for a related matter and this came up. Apparently some long term diabetics are addicted to being hypo, because of the sensation and the occasional clarity of mind. Some diabetics (erm, me?) have been known to purposely go hypo by over injecting. Sounds insane but I loved being hypo
 

Wow................ I've never had a hypo like that! :shock:

Nigel
 
This is REALLY interesting. Hypo'ing in order to get clarity of mind! I can honestly say that I operate on a completely different level when my BG is low. Down around 4 is good, but between 3 & 4 is awesome. Like you say, such clarity of mind.

Problem is, it is difficult and dangerous trying to keep your BG at that level - especially with insulin.

I'd be really interested in checking those intelligent/focussed non-diabetic people's BG and see what they are operating at. I'd also be interested in seeing what their cholesterol levels are...

Cool thread!
 
I've had feelings when I thought I knew the meaning of everything -nirvana type of experiences- when hypo.

Occasionally I'll get some ideas, when hypo, which I think are going to change the world. However, when my sugar levels have risen back to normal, the ideas no longer seem so great. Some of them have been decent, but nothing special sadly.

Hypos are known to reduce inhibitions and increase emotions (laughing, anger, fear etc) so it's not probably not surprising that a merely decent idea can seem ground breaking when particularly low.

How many others have tried to write down their 'nirvana' moments when low and ended up with a scrawl along the page that can't even be interpreted once the sugar levels have recovered? :wink:
 
Blimey, I think you're all a bit bonkers :lol: when I'm hypo, I struggle to remember my own name, let alone have clear thoughts! going hypo on purpose scares the living bejeebus out of me! :lol:
 
Debloubed said:
Blimey, I think you're all a bit bonkers :lol: when I'm hypo, I struggle to remember my own name, let alone have clear thoughts! going hypo on purpose scares the living bejeebus out of me! :lol:
Click to expand...


:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
 
Just goes to show - we're all different... :lol:
 

Dementia is known to reduce inhibitions and increase emotions too. :lol: :lol: :lol:
 
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