Hello! (and asking about night sweats)

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TimP

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Type 2
Hello folks!

I've been diagnosed with type 2 for five years now, though probably had it for much longer. I'm in my mid 40s, and diagnosis came as a mixture of relief "Oh right, that explains..." and horror "OMG! I've got diabetes".

I'm bringing the diabetes under control, steady weight loss (couple stone off, couple more to go), exercising (5k parkrun most weeks and an occasional 10k), most sugary things eliminated from my diet.

I've searched various forum threads on this for 15 minutes but can't find anyone with quite the same circumstances.

Now, I get terrible night sweats. Have done for a very long time. I sometimes go quite a while without them, and then get clusters. The last 4 nights my upper body and head have been soaked; my pillow is damp and my sheet looks like the Shroud of Turin from an imprint of sweat which has drained off. Unlike BO sweat, this sweat smells really sweet.

I'm on 1 simvastatin 40mg at night and Glucophage slow release metformin 1000mg, 1 at breakfast, 1 at evening meal. I suspect the sweats are due overnight blood glucose drops, though my GP disputes this and says I do not need to test blood glucose as the metformin manages this nicely.

Any ideas? Ways to proceed? Surely this isn't a good thing going on. Having to keep airing / washing / changing sheets and waking up wet, smelling like a sweet-shop can't be the way forward.

Cheers

Tim
 
Hi Tim, welcome to the forum 🙂 It does seem unlikely that the night sweats are due to drops in blood sugar to an unsafe level, given the medication you are on. However, our blood glucose does drop to it's lowest usually during the night/whilst we sleep. I'm wondering if your levels, whilst not actually unsafe, are falling to levels your body is unused to, and what you are experiencing is a 'false hypo'? The symptoms can be the same as actual hypoglycaemia, although as your body becomes more accustomed to lower levels the symptoms should only appear at even lower levels.

I think that the only sure way to know if this is related to your blood sugar levels is to invest in a meter and test - you will then be able to return to your GP with new information regarding whether it is low glucose or something else which needs more investigation. The cheapest meter we are aware of is the SD Codefree Meter which has test strips at around £8 for 50 (the meter comes with 10 test strips which may be enough for this particular exercise, but if you want to test for other things e.g. the effect of your food choices on your blood sugar levels, then you will need more).
 
Thanks - I'll dig my meter out. The GP is awash with disbelief when I mention testing, but tough!

Also relevant, and I'll mention this on my next annual review, is when I wake with night sweats, I am aware of my heart beating very hard and very slow as I come-to in the night. Wondering what is going on here, even if it is OK.

I'll see what happens in the next couple months.
 
TimP said:
Thanks - I'll dig my meter out. The GP is awash with disbelief when I mention testing, but tough!

Also relevant, and I'll mention this on my next annual review, is when I wake with night sweats, I am aware of my heart beating very hard and very slow as I come-to in the night. Wondering what is going on here, even if it is OK.

I'll see what happens in the next couple months.
Click to expand...
Personally, I'm aghast when doctors say there's no benefit in testing, so I'd give back as good as I got if I were you! 🙂 It's true that testing is pointless if you don't actually learn anything from the test, but if you do then there is every advantage in doing it! 🙂

I'll be interested to know what the tests reveal. There isn't any chance it might be sleep apnoea is there? Night sweats can be a symptom of that.
 
It might be a while, but I'll get back on this!

My father has sleep apnoea and gets sweats, too...I would be surprised if I did have that, but then maybe not. LOL.

Thanks for your thoughts -

Tim
 
Me and Mum get terribly hot in bed but being ladies we're used to it. 🙄 Mum says "I'll be glad when you're over the change!" For goodness sake I'm 64! I think being fat makes you sweat as well though. I end up on the sofa, so cool it's bliss.
 
Well, a few years down the line and a new GP seemed particularly OK to chase up on this - and it turns out that the likely culprit is low testosterone. My level is too low, which can cause night sweats (and many other problems, including difficulties with getting rid of fat...) - endocrinology early in the new year, as well as investigating possible sleep apnoea.
 
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