The twilight zone - Waking with a hypo

[RussG]

'reduce inihibitions and increase emotions' - are you sure you're not getting this confused with alcohol? I've had any number of great ideas under the influence that probably weren't.

[Although the nirvana hypo does sound awesome.]

 

[alaska]

are you sure you're not getting this confused with alcohol?

Both alcohol and hypoglycaemia can have this effect. It's why some people can get unusually aggressive whilst very low on sugar.

Dementia is known to reduce inhibitions and increase emotions too

Some studies have indicated that low levels of insulin may cause/be present in dementia, and other studies have shown that high levels of insulin cause may cause/be present in dementia -indicating too much or too little is bad news.

 

[Snodger]

ha, this is really interesting - I would not have guessed so many of us have experienced nirvana hypos.

Patch asked what bg level they occurred at, and I can remember one of mine was about 2.3 or so, but I've had lots of hypos where I've been (sort of) functioning at a lower level and had nothing like a nirvana hypo.

I have definitely had those middle of the night hypos where you write down the brilliant idea you had, and find in the morning that it's something like "chickens should wear hats! it would solve everything!"

ho hum. yes, I am bonkers.

I'd say though that the nirvana thing is on a different level from that. It's also very different from being drunk. You certainly don't feel aggressive in a nirvana hypo. Like others have suggested, it's more like a drug high, although I've never tried LSD so I'm only guessing that it's like that. I've read accounts of LSD trips which sound *exactly* like a nirvana hypo, and also accounts of people reaching enlightenment through meditation which sound the same (which is why I call it nirvana hypo). Does anyone know if research has been done on bg and insulin for drugs and/or meditation? Probably not - can't imagine them feeding diabetics LSD just to compare the experience with hypos... :lol:

 

[alaska]

well put Snodger

also accounts of people reaching enlightenment through meditation which sound the same

I've also thought these sound familiar experiences

 

[Patch]

This thread is AWESOME!!! I like the comparison to meditation. We know that stress has an adverse effect on BG, could it be that meditation/relaxation/slowing your heart rate (pretty much the opposite of stress), is a good way of lowering your BG???

Maybe the Budhists who have/claim to have reached enlightenment are so good at relaxing, that they actually lower their BG to such a level that they have a "Nirvana Hypo"???

Like I said - great thread. Let's keep the (fun!) speculation going!

 

[phoenix]

Both alcohol and hypoglycaemia can have this effect. It's why some people can get unusually aggressive whilst very low on sugar

If I've drunk too much,I retreat, I don't want anyone to see me like that, my visible, 'normal' persona is the stongest and I fight to maintain it.
If I'm hypo, it's exactly the same, I withdraw, I know I'm hypo (and before the pump too many really low hypos) but there is something that enables me to continue to behave 'normally' in public..
I need to cope with it myself. The only person who gets an inkling as to exactly how I'm feeling is my husband of nearly 40 years.
I did an interesting experiment on myslef when hypo. I picked up one of those reaction games (bebop?) I got a far higher score than normally. My subconcious control must be extremely strong.
I don 't have a fear of hypos, would far rather be low than high.

 

[Patch]

Interesting post, phoenix. Reminded me of this thread:

viewtopic.php?f=19&t=13345&p=121537&hilit=gaming#p121537

im begining to wonder if that when we are low like just said below 6( normal for a normal person), we are simply running at our peak performance and that we are used to been that little be worse at things then other people due to fluctuating blood sugars. so as soon as we are at peak we have abilities that seem enhanced but infact thats just us been us!
thus if diabeties gets cured suddenly all these amazing ex diabetics will appear and with no fluctuating blood sugars to cloud our abilities we will be unstoppable( add evil laugh) mu ah ah ah
p.s not just reffering to MW2 just mean things in general!

I like that...

 

[imalittlefishy]

Very jealous of these nirvana hypos...where do I get one?? :mrgreen:
xx

 

[josie38]

Hi,

I know that it all sounds good but we wouldn't recommend that any of you try this.

TBH- im a bit jealous of nirvana hypos

But we still wouldn't recommend it.

Josie :wink:

 

[noblehead]

Very jealous of these nirvana hypos...where do I get one?? :mrgreen:
xx

I'll find my calm using other methods thanks! :lol:

Nigel

 

[Dillinger]

"chickens should wear hats!"

My god - that's it! You've hit upon an eternal truth... :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

The last time that happened to me I woke up with a deeply profound truth in my head (not as good as your chickens one) took 3 Dextro tablets, went back to sleep. Forgot the profound truth.

 

[franki]

This thread is the reason I joined. Today I fell asleep in the car (don't worry, I was a passenger!) on a long motorway trip. I woke up about an hour later hypo but still dreaming. In my dream, it was vitally important that I didn't acknowledge that I was hypo because it would affect everyone's reality or time or something (too much Dr Who) and so while I was driftingly conscious of the fact that I was probably quite low sugar, I didn't act upon it and fell asleep again. My wife apparently noticed that I was sweating profusely and asked if I was going low sugar, apparently I answered that I was fine, that I didn't know how I knew but that I knew. Apparently I was quite snappish and since we were driving down the M1 and about 20 mins from home, she didn't push it any further.

When we got home, they couldn't get me to move. I wasn't unconscious, I was awake and clenching my hands but not really properly responding. After suggesting that I eat a mars bar, which I ignored, they started to put glucose tablets into my mouth. I was awake enough to crunch them up and eat them. I remember none of this. What I do remember is coming back to consciousness, I felt that I was dreaming because nothing felt real so I sat back and waited for what happened next in the dream. It was a pretty boring dream, my wife asking me if I was feeling better and asking me to do a blood test. I was ignoring all of this because it wasn't real. There was a very dreamlike quality to everything but slowly it started to solidify around me and at some point I decided that this might actually be reality or at least, as real as it was going to get so I did a blood test. I was at 4.0 by this point.

God knows what I was down to when we first got home. I've never experienced this before. The memory loss particularly unnerved me after the fact as did the fact that I totally freaked out my 10 year old daughter. Not my best day by a long shot. I've also had hypos when sleeping and woken up and sorted myself out. Not regularly but in 20 years, it's happened before. The initial dream state and feeling that my state of consciousness could adversely effect everyone else's reality was definitely to blame here. The resulting sugar levels were, in hindsight, **** scary.

 

[LauraRedfern]

I'm so grateful for the internet. Just woken up to a hypo dream (it's just after 4am) and, having sorted myself out decided to have a look online for something like this post by franki.

The brain is a really wonderful thing!

I don't often go hypo whilst asleep but on the very odd occasions I do, I appear to have developed some subconscious technique for waking myself up - knowing what's wrong (i.e. I'm low and need some sugar pretty **** quick!).

I have been type 1 now since 1979 - diagnosed when I was 3 years old. I've never had any problems with my diabetes - so far anyway - and I have managed to produce 3 healthy children and have a busy life - diabetes has never held me back from achieving anything. A

nyway, I would say in the last 10 years I have developed a warning system (well, I'm taking credit here but it's my subconscious really and not me!) which gives me a certain type of dream which wakes me up. Each time the dream varies - and is usually based upon things I have been worrying about.

Tonights episode was about overloaded USB and phone charging sockets ;-) which resulted in a fire etc.

What was interesting was that my subconscious had tried to warn me earlier but I had gone back to sleep like a fool. The second lot of dreaming was then much nastier than the first, and I sure did wake up the second time and was able to treat myself.

Franki, when I was expecting my eldest daughter (now 12), I had a night time hypo in which everything shut down that wasn't necessary to keeping me alive. By this I mean that my legs went dead, and my arms - I couldn't move. The horrifying thing was that my mind on this occasion was totally clear and alert. It was seriously the most frightening thing of my life! But I think again, my body took charge, decided that it would be wasteful to provide resources to far off parts of body (like my legs and extremities) when the blood was required more centrally). This sounds like a bit of a tin-pot theory and as I'm not a medical expert I'd be interested to hear other people's views on this. Sufficient to say the ambulance was called on this occasion and I was given a glucose drip - which worked in seconds, much to my relief!

I'd love to compare stories and hear what weird things other people experience - is any research conducted into hypo dreams/warning systems?

Right feeling much better now - back to bed!

 

[cally]

I had one like that when I was about 4 months pregnant also with eldest daughter. I was in bed in the morning after husband had gone to work and decided to have a bit of a lie in as pregnancy made me exhausted.
When I woke my arms and legs wouldn't do what I wanted and I ended up rolling out of bed onto the carpet. I was still there and very cold when husband came home from work and I had red sore areas on heels and elbows where I had tried to move myself up off the floor. But I was never unconcious just unable to move.

Luckily it didn't harm the baby. This was 30 years ago when I was on fixed doses of actrapid and insulatard .
I have had several of those unable to move type hypos, and also the scary ones where the layout of the house seems different and I can't find my way to my supply of lucozade!!

I am glad to say don't hypo much at all now since getting pump

 

[Lucie75]

and also the scary ones where the layout of the house seems different and I can't find my way to my supply of lucozade!!

I've had those ones too and can't for the life of me find the lucozade! It is scary, especially as I do actually have it dotted about everywhere in the house!

I once went hypo when I was home alone. My husband kept phoning me but got no response so he phoned my mum who lived 5 mins away and got her to come round (luckily she has a key to the house). When she arrived she found me staring at the phone that was ringing and she asked me why I didn't answer it and I apparently said that I'd tried but it wasn't working. Of course I couldn't even work out how to pick up the receiver. I can't remember the conversation between me and my mum but I can remember vividly trying to work out how to answer the phone, and how it was completely baffling!!

I also have hypos when I can't work out how to drink lucozade from a bottle without spilling it everywhere, and often 'come round' covered in the stuff!

 

[Debloubed]

and also the scary ones where the layout of the house seems different and I can't find my way to my supply of lucozade!!

I've had those ones too and can't for the life of me find the lucozade! It is scary, especially as I do actually have it dotted about everywhere in the house!

I once went hypo when I was home alone. My husband kept phoning me but got no response so he phoned my mum who lived 5 mins away and got her to come round (luckily she has a key to the house). When she arrived she found me staring at the phone that was ringing and she asked me why I didn't answer it and I apparently said that I'd tried but it wasn't working. Of course I couldn't even work out how to pick up the receiver. I can't remember the conversation between me and my mum but I can remember vividly trying to work out how to answer the phone, and how it was completely baffling!!

I also have hypos when I can't work out how to drink lucozade from a bottle without spilling it everywhere, and often 'come round' covered in the stuff!

All totally normal and far too familar in my world Lucie! When hypo, the most basic things can seem very difficult and complicated :roll: :lol:

 

[Ausra]

So many great posts..
I never had that really bad hypo..I am diabetic one year only and I am really scared to get one as I live alone. I found a really good advise to keep sugar somewhere close to bed. I wish you all nice hypos! It is an experience really..