Sleep

[Northerner]

Just wondering how everyone gets on with sleeping? I rarely get more than 5-6 hours, and that tends to be broken up into 1-2 hour segments, with bladder relief expeditions in between. I've been going 'sober for October' and have found that it has meant that, although I wake as frequently, I usually get back to sleep very quickly. I've also noticed that I dream EVERY time I go to sleep, although the dreams fade almost as soon as I wake up - anyone else dream a lot? They aren't usually particularly pleasant dreams, although I wouldn't elevate them to the category of 'nightmare' - more just to do with finding myself in unsettling circumstances that there seems to be no way out of. As a kid I used to have recurrent dreams - had the same dream every night for 2 years between 12-14 years (no - not that sort of dream! 😱 ).- it was so familiar to me that I could 'direct' it and remembered a lot of it after waking - can still picture some of the scenes!

 

[Amigo]

In total genuineness, you've just described my sleeping experiences to a tee northerner including the prolific dreaming which I seem able to 'direct' to a certain extent. And I wake remembering a great deal of detail. Due to my other condition, I'm always extremely overheated at night even in the winter and I attributed these 'unsettling circumstance' dreams (good expression) to that feverishness. But despite my levels been relatively good, I'm still a frequent bathroom visitor and I find this exhausting. Not sure how much is attributable to diabetes.

Oh to simply go to bed as I once did and wake when the alarm roused me! 😳

 

[Worcester_Matt]

I'm a terrible sleeper usually. I wake every couple of hours, and I too have very vivid and recurrent dreams. Some I had in childhood I no longer have, but others still persist now. I've recently started on Amitriptyline which makes it easier for me to get to sleep, but I'm still restless at night and now I'm groggy for most of the next day. I find a lot of my night time restlessness stems from the pain I'm having with my feet and legs though.

 

[AlisonM]

Same here, I rarely go more than a couple of hours without waking and often get up feeling more exhausted than when I went to bed. It doesn't matter what my numbers are doing, though I'm far more restless when they're high. I do frequently have very vivid dreams some of which are very odd indeed and often disturbing but, over the years, I've learned to wake myself if they turn to nightmares. I can remember most of them if I try. I had a recurring nightmare as a child that I haven't had for many years (thank god) and was haunted by some of the things that happened in my early teens when we were stuck in a war zone for three years - that last set at least had an obvious source. I've managed to get a bit of sleep since I've been taking Cyclizine for the nausea because they tend to knock me out, but I still wake up knackered and the dreams are just as bizarre.

 

[KookyCat]

I have better sleep now that I know longer have to battle with the Lantus, but it's still very hit and miss. I've never slept for more than six hours, but I used to close my eyes and wake up six hours later. These days I struggle from 3am onwards, which I suspect is related to dipping blood sugar still, if I wake very early (before 5) I will be in the 4's. I do have pretty vivid dreams, mostly not pleasant, but I've always been like that. I never dream of happy times that's for sure. I find the broken sleep very difficult and seem to find myself exhausted by Friday, which really irritates me because I'd like to be off doing things at the weekend rather than recovering.

The clocks changing will also cause me problems because I'll be up at four for a while until my body adjusts!

 

[Robin]

I often wake up around 3am. Since using the Libre, I've noticed this is usually my lowest point of the night, so I assume I wake when I'm extra low. Depending on how life is going, I either turn over and go back to sleep, get up and test, (and have a hypo treatment if I'm getting warning signs), or start thinking about whatever's causing me grief in my life at that moment, and at that hour, whatever seems manageable during the day takes on epic proportions. I usually wake up again around 6am, and again, the Libre has shown that I often have a second dip around this time. Then I doze til 7.30 when the alarm goes off.
I do dream a lot, but I usually forget what it was about a few moments after I've woken up. Unless it's one of the two recurring dreams I have. If I'm stressed, I dream that I'm about to sit an A level exam and I haven't done any revision. If I need a pee, I dream that I'm looking for a loo, but all the ones I find have something wrong with them. (I don't think I'm weird, but other people may beg to differ!)

 

[Redkite]

What is this "sleep" of which you speak? 😉

 

[Robin]

What is this "sleep" of which you speak? 😉

It's something you eventually get reacquainted with, once your children have grown up.

 

[Jennywren]

My body would go into shock I think if I had a good nights sleep , after years of living with brittle diabetes and hypo unawareness I wake automatically every 1 1/2 to 2hrs , it then takes me ages to fall back to sleep and then it all starts again , I counted I was up x6 the other night , it would be so nice to have a nights uninterrupted sleep the most I have slept for is 3 hrs on the odd occasion

 

[stephknits]

I have terrible trouble going to sleep. Was awake until 5.15 the night before last. Some night s I don't sleep at all. On a good night it takes me about an hour and a half to drop off. Usually ok once asleep (apart from odd night time hypo). Also still have to go to the toilet a lot, despite much better BG levels. It really gets me down, we all know it is hard to stay positve when you are exhausted. I seem to go through periods of really bad sleep and then better times (with only a wait of one to two hours before sleep). It gets so I dread going to bed. I do the classic worrying pointlessly about life rubbish. I have tried all sorts of things to help, but nothing works. I have to say it has been really comforting to read this thread. I shall be thinking of you all tonight.
Re dreams, I had recurring dreams as well during childhood, which I still remember. Not so common nowadays.
Take care all and wishing you a very good night x

 

[TheClockworkDodo]

This is interesting, and I wonder whether it's a dodgy immune system thing, because ME also causes sleep disturbances, including insomnia, unrefreshing sleep, nightmares and disturbing dreams of the sort you all describe, and sleep paralysis. I used to get all of these, but I spent several years taking herbal sleeping pills (Potters Nodoff - the active ingredient being passiflora), which dealt with them for me. Now I have stopped taking them and still sleep very well.

In fact, I could sleep for England, once I finally manage to get to bed! ME also causes sleep reversal so my body tends to want to be awake for the first half of the night and asleep all morning: I keep trying to get to bed earlier, but I usually don't manage it until 1 or 2am. But I get up at 10 and usually go back to bed for another hour after breakfast, so I get plenty of sleep - usually 8 or 9 hours at night and more during the day.

Being diagnosed with diabetes hasn't made any difference to my sleep, except for the first week after I came out of hospital having been put on far too much Lantus, when I had a hypo every night. But now I've got that sorted I rarely wake at all, not even to go to the loo. Not sure what I'd do if I started sleeping badly again - I'd be a bit wary about trying the passiflora again in case I had a hypo and didn't wake up.

 

[TheClockworkDodo]

If I need a pee, I dream that I'm looking for a loo, but all the ones I find have something wrong with them. (I don't think I'm weird, but other people may beg to differ!)

I don't think you're weird, Robin - I meant to say, I used to get that dream too, all the time, before I was diagnosed with diabetes! Can't remember if I've had it since, I sleep too heavily to remember if I dream at all much now.

 

[spiritfree]

I have sleep aponea and have to wear a mask, attatched to a bi-pap machine, which regulates my breathing. In sleep tests it showed that I stopped breathing 34 times per hour. It is a bit better now but I am waiting to go to clinic, 11th November, to have the strength raised.

 

[trophywench]

I cannot get off, then wake up again every 1-2 hours for the loo - this is still much the same if I don't drink more than I really have to during the evening. It's driving me potty .....

 

[Annette]

I spend 8 hours in bed. I reckon I probably spend 5 hours actually asleep...
But its the dreams thing that interests me. When I was younger (right up until my 20s I think), I used to have what I called my hypo dream. I couldn't describe it (it was very hyper-unreal and surreal and stuff) but I knew that, if I woke up in the middle of that dream, I was hypo. And I never woke up hypo without that dream. At some point, it just stopped, and I haven't had it for many years, but I can still remember the dream...

 

[Jennywren]

Re dreams I used to have really vivid dreams , could tell you everything even down to what person in dream was wearing , and sometimes dreams could be really upsetting would actually wake up crying , so started to look into this and someone suggested changing the position of the bed , all down to yin and yang (positive and negative energys) not sure how much I believe but gave it a go ( would have tried anything at that stage) and guess what ? It worked not saying I don't dream at all now but they nowhere near as graphic or horrific .

 

[Northerner]

Interesting Jennywren! I remember the most vivid dreams I ever had were during the period when I was trying to stop smoking by using the nicotene patches. They were very intense and I knew I was dreaming, and must have had something to do with the high level of nicotene being constantly provided by the patches. They also had many common features, particularly locations. I've noticed that there are locations and landscapes in dreams that I know as well as 'real life', yet I can relate them to no places I have ever visited. One finds me in a hotel in Stockholm - I've been to hotels in Stockholm, but the dream is completely unlike either if them, or any of the streets and other places that my dream tells me is Stockholm! I wonder if these places exist and have been passed down in 'gene memory'? Brains are amazing things! 😱

 

[trophywench]

I used to dream, but can't remember having one for years and years. Of course - this doesn't mean I'm not having the right kind of sleep - and is dreaming sleep the 'right' sleep, anyway, IYSWIM? - just that I don't remember them, presumably!

 

[Annette]

I think (correct me if I'm wrong) you dream during REM sleep, which is the part that leads into the deep sleep that is most beneficial. You only remember them if you wake up during them - if you don't wake up, you will probably still be having them, but as the brain moves off into other things, it forgets them.

 

[Caroline]

I manage about 6-7 hours with a bathroom break in between. Sometimes I dream and sometimes I don't.. Depends how busy I have been during the day and how knackered I feel when I get to bed having settled little feller down