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What are your sleeping patterns?

T

Type-2-Havent-A-Clue

Well-Known Member
Messages
218
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Just curious to find out if your diabetes or illnesses/disabilities associated with the condition have affected your sleeping routines? If so, How?

Be it getting up to test BS levels or take medications or through pain and discomfort from ailments.

Some may even sleep better now than ever before.
 
I used to stay awake all night. I still have bouts of insomnia, but I've discovered two things:

  1. I really need to sleep at night, or my liver'll dump me straight into double digits.
  2. CBD oil helps me sleep through the night, even with a full bladder, haha.

So I've started to have a better sleep cycle than I used to. I remember being up all night as a kid (and I mean 4 years old), so it's only taken about 36 years for me to get a proper rythm, but I've finally got it since a year or two.
 
If my BG is in range, my sleep patterns are unaffected.
I have now learnt, if I wake in the middle of the night, the first thing to do is to test my BG. If it is too high (above 8mmol/l) or too low (below 4mmol/l), I correct and can get back to sleep. Otherwise, I will toss and turn for eternity ... or at least until the radio comes on.
 
It's very hard to tell for me as I'm a full time carer for my adult son and he barely sleeps and if he's awake I have to be - a good night for "us" is 1.30 am to about 5.30 am - a bad night is no sleep at all! Sometimes I'm exhausted sometimes I'm full of energy- I don't think I would sleep any longer if I could as I've been doing so long lol

I do get early nights when my hubby is home (11.30 ish) but I then wake up about 4.30 and can't get back to sleep. I sometimes go back to bed at the weekend for a 2-3hrs and find this my most refreshing sleep
 
Two things have significantly affected my sleep patterns in recent years:
Caffeine - have had to give up even decaff drinks now, or sleep very badly indeed.
Magnesium deficiency - following a tummy bug that affected absorption of it.

So far as I am aware, neither of them have been affected by, or have affected my blood glucose situation except that I have a higher fasting reading on nights with poor sleep.

I have read from various sources that sleep deprivation is associated with the development of T2.
 
I have a regular bed time, I then read for an hour then usually sleep well until my regular waking up time. Since I got my BG under control my diabetes hasn't affected my sleep at all. What has affected my sleep is my arthritis. If I have a bad night because of the pain from the arthritis then my fasting blood glucose is usually 1.0 to 2.0 higher than if I've slept soundly all night.
 
Hard to say.

Some nights I sleep okay but others I am so wracked by fibromyalgia pains that I don't know why I bother.
 
I go to bed and fall asleep within a few minutes. I wake up once or twice a night to visit the loo but each time I hardly open my eyes and am most likely sleep walking, so am back to sleep again as soon as I hit the pillow. I sleep for at least 8 hours and have no need to take naps during the day. I have always been like that.
 
Still trying to work out why some nights I get about six hours sleep, but most nights I am lucky to get two consecutive hours sleep. One thing for sure is that if I take a glass of Enos after my main meal, lunch, I do sleep better. Only problem is that I forget to take it. Also lack of sleep does seem to result in higher blood sugar. Over all I do seem to keep my blood sugar fairly even. 100 to 120. I think that is 5.5 to 6.5. Never feel good the next day if I don’t get a fair night’s sleep.
 
For months I’ve woken up several times every night. The only ‘good’ nights were those aided by Boots’ Sleepeaze but I knew that taking sleep aids long term was not wise. So on Sunday, after just three hours sleep, I decided to cut my caffeine down to just one Yorkshire Gold Tea, at breakfast. The result is remarkable! The past three nights I’ve had seven or eight hours quality sleep, waking just once for a trip to the loo. Mind you - without my caffeine fix it now takes much longer to finish my sudoku
 
You could try taking some pain medication at dinner time that will keep working all night.
 
As posted by a fellow T1 my biggest issues with broken sleep are purely down to BS levels being high or low.
 
I sleep really badly must wake up about 10 times hardly ever seem to be fully asleep it’s really bad not sure if its really diabetic related but it can’t help
 
Um. . .

Well....

Head hits the pillow and then the alarm goes off. Sleep of the just.

That's how it's been since I dumped carbs and alcohol. Add either and it all gets messy.
 
Hi Davie,
I feel for you. I used to think that I sleep really poorly too. So I bought a Fitbit that records the patterns and explains it all.
Yes I’m awake for about a hour every night but the rest of my sleep is pretty much normal according to the data. So I stopped worrying. And it is nearly every night in the same sleep patterns.
I wish you a good night sleep
Possumtail
 
I have never been a 8 hr sleeper ... usually 4 or 5 hours maximum with pee breaks

Having Rheumatoid and Osteo arthritis, along with a 50 yr old neck injury that has resulted in DDD (degenerative disc disease) in my neck, sleeping soundly has been a challenge. Go to sleep at 2am and wake at 6 or 7am with the 4am wake up call for relieving myself.

As mentioned by JoKalsbeek, CBD Oil is my saviour! Taken at bedtime (1:1 blend CBD and THC) provides a deeper and more restful sleep ... but still have one well-needed bathroom sprint half-way through sleep time. Of course that trip to the Loo may involve a little staggering and wall bouncing - watch out doggie, I'm crossing the floor in the dark LOL. I wake up refreshed and ready to face another day. Does the CBD help glucose levels? ... not dramatically that I have seen but if I test as soon as I wake up it is a little lower than if I did not have the CBD Oil. Was it the CBD Oil or just a better sleep? Don't know. So much research is still needed and so many strains of CBD Oil - possibly one strain is better than another (I use Indica mostly).
 
I was overweight as a result of/as a cause of my T2 and as a consequence I had obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) so my sleep patterns were very poor although I was unaware of it, just permanently tired. OSA was diagnosed and CPAP prescribed, my sleep was wonderful with CPAP, very rested in the morning. I did occasionally wake, before loosing weight, with hypos but as soon as they were treated I rapidly went back to sleep.

I reduced carbs and lost considerable weight. As a consequence my Hbac dropped to pre diabetic levels. I was tested for OSA, at my request, by oxygen saturation levels overnight with no CPAP, and was discharged as no longer having OSA. I no longer use CPAP and I have slept the sleep of the just until recent surgery. I am now waking once or twice a night. HBac is still pre diabetic.

The moral of this diatribe is poor sleep may be the result of OSA rather than diabetes particularly if you are overweight. OSA is nasty, insidious, dangerous if you drive or operate machinery and will leave you totally exhausted if untreated.
 
Erratic to say the least, but this has been the case since well before i became diabetic. And possibly worse since I retired. Sometimes too my body clock will do a a gradual shift so I'm awake at night and sleeping during the day.
 
I sleep for a maximum of 5 hours. Though some nights, I get very little sleep
 
I get up at night to go to the bathroom. Otherwise good. A good seven hours, sometimes a bit more.
 
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