Sleep and Type 2 Diabetes Discussion
Some community members have spoken about how sleep may impact their diabetes management and how diabetes symptoms may also impact their sleep. Share your experiences below! How often does sleep impact your diabetes? How often do your diabetes symptoms impact your sleep? Do you live with any sleep conditions? Submit your own question!
Sleep impairment can cause havoc with your health. 1. Identify the problems with sleep. Trouble falling asleep or waking up during the night and unable to go back to sleep. Another issue is still feeling tired after sleeping all night. 2. Inability to turn off your brain when trying to sleep. This can be alleviated by turning off all electronics 1-2 hours before bed. That includes TV. The blue light emitted from electronics stimulates the brain. Alternatives to promote sleep may be reading a book, journaling, listening to soothing music, or prayer and meditation. These activities calm the brain and promote sleep. Restorative sleep is the goal. Try these few tips to see if they help. Trinette Stanford, Community moderator 
You bring up some great points about the impact of sleep on overall health and how challenging it can be to get good rest. Trouble falling asleep, waking up during the night, and not feeling rested even after a full night’s sleep can be really tough to manage. I’ve definitely found that turning off electronics before bed makes a huge difference. The blue light can be sneaky, keeping the brain too stimulated when it’s time to wind down.
I’ve also found that developing a pre-sleep routine can really help, whether it’s reading, journaling, or even just some deep breathing exercises. It’s amazing how much these simple activities can help shift the mind away from stress and promote that restorative sleep we all need.I agree completely with your take on sleep. Allowing the body to be calm and peaceful before bed is very helpful to falling and staying asleep. Personally, I read in bed before falling asleep. It's a way for me to wind down at the end of a busy day. Thanks so much for chiming in and being a contributing member of this community. -Lauren (team member)
I think with me it’s, the antidepressant I’m taking for my depression what I think it was, all stress of being diagnosed with diabetes and all the things they tell you in the classes scared the crap out of me not depression and a whole lot of stress in my life. Also know one on my family gets the stress of living with this disease can have an impact on sleep to. There’s so many things that can impact sleep it’s hard to tell for sure what the root problem is. My mom died in 2015 lots of sleepless night with grief,and her husband died in 2021 so we just sold her house and still dealing with her will, it’s been very stressful and has brought up a lot of emotions to I miss my mom so much,her husband was not very supportive when I was diagnosed with diabetes, I needed my mom through this I was newly diagnosed and very scared, my doctor wasn't very supportive either. I told him I was scared when I booked an appointment with him after about a month and he put me on an antidepressant called Pristq I felt a bit down but not depressed more like really stressed, and overwhelmed no one understood where I was coming from be newly diagnosed. I didn’t feel right at all on the antidepressant it was way to strong, he told me to switch it to night then I couldn’t sleep at all at the time I didn’t know this caused insomnia and nervousness he didn’t explain any of this to me, I ended up in the hospital told them I couldn’t sleep they put me on a sleeping pill. And all along it’s the antidepressant. I’m finding this out in the last few years. That these meds can cause so many problems which I didn’t know. He also put me on anxiety meds but it wasn’t anxiety it was the antidepressant causing side effects, and anxious that I was going to have a low sugar but didn’t happen,these classes should not made to scare you. Then switched to Effexor that is very similar to Pristq, and now working with a psychiatrist to try and get off these meds, but there’s withdrawl syndrome coming off these awful medications because I’ve been on them to long. Not knowing all these side effects to phsyciatric meds, has caused so much stress. I’m doing my diabetes by diet and exercise fo 10 years now, and my aA1cs are good, but the grief is still there of my mom. So that makes me sad on many days, when I feel overwhelmed with diabetes I just want my mom, the tears are rolling down my face as I write this.😢
My mom died Jan 2021, then my brother following year and then sister in 2023. I took care of my mom and she died at home. Divorced and lived with her and my grandmother since 1995. Been on disability since 2001. My Mom and I were best friends. I too miss her terribly every single day. I cant think about her or talk about her without crying. I took care of others and no one knew about my illnesses for the most part. I live alone and know absolutely no one, pretty much it’s me, myself and I. Used to work in the medical field, am ashamed at what the medical profession has become. 
Thank goodness you were there for them,
, but I wish someone could be there for you as well. Do you have friends in the area? Are you able to get out of the house much and maybe attend library events or craft festivals? Library events can be a great way to meet new people as can volunteering, maybe in a local food pantry. I am glad you at least found this community and are becoming an active member. You are never alone. - Lori (Team Member)
The diabetes (I refuse to say “my diabetes”) affects in the sense that i wake up in the early hours of the morning very hot and have to throw off blankets etc even in winter! Then I get cold and have to put them back on again. To be fair this only happens when my bgs are higher than they should be.
Thank you for sharing your in depth process of data analysis. I'm so excited for you to see the fruit of your labor when you have enough information to draw a conclusion. Why do you feel July is your target date? Where are you taking your Excel course? Good for you! All the best, Lauren (team member)
The more data I have the greater the chance that patterns will emerge and I'll see correlations between various data such as the ratio of grams of carbs consumed to levels of blood glucose.
At the moment I don't have enough data to draw meaningful conclusions because there are many outliers but the greater the data I have the greater the chance of some sort of pattern emerging. Of course I may find there's no correlation but as the old saying goes - no answer is an answer in itself.
The Excel course I'm taking is "Spreadsheeto from Zero to Hero" and whilst not cheap (although the basic introductory is reasonable in price)
is very good for a thorough grounding in Excel spreadsheets.
I find that high blood sugar promotes wakefulness and makes it harder to sleep. And sudden sugar fluctuations can produce the opposite effect, causing a crash. Low blood sugar can make waking up challenging but almost everyones’ bs rises in the AM for this reason. And high bs also causes night sweats for me and makes it very difficult for me to tolerate the 70+ degree temperatures my wife likes to sleep at.
Hello
, I got some cooling sheets. This is the best kept secret. It made such a difference in my sleep habits. I have some cooling pillow cases coming too. How are the cooling sheets working for you? Diane (Team Member) 
agreed! Johj blood sugars for me keep me awake or wake me up in the middle of the night. Combine that with neuropathy, and my goodness, I'm trying to find the sandman as if he was Waldo. B. Keith Crear III (Team Member)
