• Please Remember: Members are only permitted to share their own experiences. Members are not qualified to give medical advice. Additionally, everyone manages their health differently. Please be respectful of other people's opinions about their own diabetes management.
  • We seem to be having technical difficulties with new user accounts. If you are trying to register please check your Spam or Junk folder for your confirmation email. If you still haven't received a confirmation email, please reach out to our support inbox: support.forum@diabetes.org.uk

Night sweats

Status
This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
megga

megga

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
Had these about a year ago, and started getting them again. Thing is its around 3 times a night but not every night. Blood readings at the time was 9.
I have good hypo awareness at night and wake when i'm in one.

Any ideas, i did think about the menopause, but as a male, think i have that covered.
 
Thanks for this question Megga, it is a subject that I must admit is embarrasing me as it is every night. I will be following the answers from others with a great deal of interest!

Michael
 
I get night sweats when I go hypo, but then it took me ages to work out what was going in because all my medics told me I must be going high over night and that's what was causing the sweats. I noticed that I was quite wired when I woke up with the sweats and my blood sugar looked quite normal in he high five range so started monitoring the time it was happening and then set an alarm an hour before the golden time and sure enough I caught the hypo I was always in the low three high two range when I tested. I don't wake when hypo and my liver seems quite conservative in pushing out glucose, but everyone reacts differently. I altered the time and dose of my basal and it rarely happens now but does occassionally if my rapid is at fault. I had to fight my corner quite a bit with that one because the general wisdom is that you're going hypo over night you will wake up high, my body refuses to follow those rules though 🙄
 
just looking at the two respondents, is it usually only type 1 people that get the night sweats and therefore my ones must be caused by something else?
 
It might not be diabetes related. Perhaps some other hormone is responsible. In males, changes to prostate gland, for example. If it's causing you bother, then worth asking GP, who can ask the appropriate questions.
 
When we sleep our blood sugar naturally fall to their lowest levels as the liver slows production of glucose. This normally happens around 2-3 am. Possibly, as a recently diagnosed T2 Michael, you are getting low blood sugar symptoms because your levels are now lower than you are accustomed to. If this is the case then hopefully this will settle in time. However, as Copepod says, there may be other reasons and if you are concerned then see your GP 🙂

Personally, I have always generated a lot of heat as the night progresses (I won't say the inevitable 'I'm hot in bed'! 😉), long before diabetes.
 
Spoke to my GP last time this happened, and he just put it down to hypo's in the night. This is when I could do with a CGM.
Thing is it doesn't happen every night, saying that I should probably start keeping a diary.
 
When my husband was early 50's he had hot flushes, and suprisingly, when he asked the DR. he said its male menopause, hormones do this to men, but just not on the same scale as us ladies...he's 56 now and doesnt get them hardly at all, so dont rule out the old hormones🙂
 
They tested my hormone levels and thyroid and just about everything else they could think of before they'd believe me and my trusty meter there are a number of things that can cause night sweats so best to be safe.
 
What I am about to say is not a diagnosis. I am just relaying what happened to me.

Before I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, I quite regularly got night sweats leaving the pillow and bed sheets literally dripping with water.

It turned out that this was down to my liver having fatty deposits and it was now struggling.

Once I'd got my weight down, these fatty deposits in the liver were no longer apparent (took about a year and a half of constant effort to achieve this and be discharged from the liver clinic).

The good news for me is that I no longer have any night sweat episodes and my liver still seems to be on the straight and narrow (even with my recent weight increase).

Andy 🙂
 
Interesting thread for me and I look forward to reading the answers. I have night sweats and have had them for some years now. Doctor said that he did not know what causes it but they are not life threatening so I should just learn to live with them. It can be embarrassing as I quite often have to change my nightclothes and sometimes the sheet and duvet cover, OK at home, but not so good in hotels or staying with friends or family, makes a lot of laundry too! 🙂
 
Being T1 the first thing I would look at is Bg. I have had these & is 90% its down to low Bg. A freestyle Libre is a excellent way to learn at what is happening. £130 well spent 😎 Good luck Megga
 
Whenever this happens to me it is always because I have low blood sugar. Woke this way the other night, tested and was 2.2. The time before, 1.9. It seems that I am woken up at this point and have learned to test immediately.
 
Status
This thread is now closed. Please contact Anna DUK, Ieva DUK or everydayupsanddowns if you would like it re-opened.
Back
Top