Sleeping problems

[brettr]

Hi Everyone,

I am having a really bad time sleeping properly at the moment, am not sure if it's my T2 diabetes or if there are things on my mind ? If I am lucky I might get one decent night of say a good 5 hours, even though I realise I need more than that. It does not help that I do sometimes get up in the night to pass water, usually 2-3 times in one night, I always have a bottle of water at the side of my bed as I end up with a really dry mouth, so have a couple of mouthfuls before going back to sleep, just enough to wet my tongue and throat.

There have been the odd few nights when I have not slept at all, even though I have been lay in bed and resting. The best and easiest thing to do is get up and stay up till I am really tired later that day and go to bed earlier, just because I am so tired.

I realise this will have an effect on my T2 and also cortisol levels. I do meditate sometimes, but think I need to do it a lot more than I have done. How do you guys manage to hopefully sleep well, do you meditate, or just sit in a quiet room and relax, do you have any tips to help me sort my backside out as I feel I am letting myself down, when I do know better having previously worked in the NHS for 18 years in dialysis and with some of the patients I dealt with being diabetic.

Thanks in advance for any replies.

Brett

 

[harbottle]

Excessive peeing at night could be a sign of high blood sugar… do you check your levels?

I feel your pain, as before I was diagnosed I was stressed with work and had leg pains and hadn’t slept properly for months.

 

[Inka]

Do you test your blood sugar when you wake up to go to the toilet? Also, have you got this awful cold/throat thing going round that causes a really dry mouth? Maybe the dry mouth is to do with mouth-breathing or something like that rather than the diabetes?

You do mention things on your mind. Meditating is good as is mindfulness. I also find deep breathing good, along with limiting screens before bed.

 

[Amity Island]

Hi Everyone,

I am having a really bad time sleeping properly at the moment, am not sure if it's my T2 diabetes or if there are things on my mind ? If I am lucky I might get one decent night of say a good 5 hours, even though I realise I need more than that. It does not help that I do sometimes get up in the night to pass water, usually 2-3 times in one night, I always have a bottle of water at the side of my bed as I end up with a really dry mouth, so have a couple of mouthfuls before going back to sleep, just enough to wet my tongue and throat.

There have been the odd few nights when I have not slept at all, even though I have been lay in bed and resting. The best and easiest thing to do is get up and stay up till I am really tired later that day and go to bed earlier, just because I am so tired.

I realise this will have an effect on my T2 and also cortisol levels. I do meditate sometimes, but think I need to do it a lot more than I have done. How do you guys manage to hopefully sleep well, do you meditate, or just sit in a quiet room and relax, do you have any tips to help me sort my backside out as I feel I am letting myself down, when I do know better having previously worked in the NHS for 18 years in dialysis and with some of the patients I dealt with being diabetic.

Thanks in advance for any replies.

Brett

Have you tried the elimination of led blue lights (phones, tv, devices) a good few hours before bed time?

 

[brettr]

Excessive peeing at night could be a sign of high blood sugar… do you check your levels?

I feel your pain, as before I was diagnosed I was stressed with work and had leg pains and hadn’t slept properly for months.

Hi, thanks for your reply.

I understood excessive peeing to be something like 8-10 times during the night, not 2-3 times ? My sugars have been higher than normal because I had to stop one of my medications, so am only taking Metformin at the moment. I do check my levels just to see how I am doing at the moment, I am due for my HBA1C blood test on 5 December, so I will be mentioning this to the nurse that day.

My biggest stress is related to being the carer for my mum and dad, don't get me wrong, I will do what I have to to ensure they are ok, but I am not getting any time away from the whole thing of looking after them, which does not help seeing as I have been doing this for the last 7 years. My legs do sometimes get a little restless, but not very often.

 

[brettr]

Do you test your blood sugar when you wake up to go to the toilet? Also, have you got this awful cold/throat thing going round that causes a really dry mouth? Maybe the dry mouth is to do with mouth-breathing or something like that rather than the diabetes?

You do mention things on your mind. Meditating is good as is mindfulness. I also find deep breathing good, along with limiting screens before bed.

When I wake to go to the toilet, I am walking about like I am tipsy, even though I am not, I don't take my BG monitor to bed with me, as I would normally completely forget to use it, my brain is only in operation mode to take me to the loo and back to bed.

Luckily, I don't have the cold/throat bug that is going about now, but I would agree with my being an open mouth breather when asleep, my lips, tongue etc, feels like someone has plastered my mouth when I get up, it's icky n yuk !

Things on my mind are to do with being the carer for my parents mainly, and not getting enough time to relax away from it, they have both had recent health problems, my dad being in Hospital recently. This sounds horrible, but it's not meant to, I just feel that I am not getting enough time to myself to relax and take care of my needs with being T2.

I do need to meditate more and relax my breathing, I do use my Alexa playing either Relaxing Massage Music or Meditation Music, which helps me get off to sleep. I do need to come off my PC and ipad before going to bed.

 

[brettr]

Have you tried the elimination of led blue lights (phones, tv, devices) a good few hours before bed time?

Being honest, the answer to your question is no. But that's my own fault, I do try and use the warmer screen colour to take the blue light away from my eyes, I do use my Ipad for reading stories to help me get off to sleep some nights. Which to be honest I need to stop doing.

 

[Amity Island]

Being honest, the answer to your question is no. But that's my own fault, I do try and use the warmer screen colour to take the blue light away from my eyes, I do use my Ipad for reading stories to help me get off to sleep some nights. Which to be honest I need to stop doing.

Definitely worth a try, nothing to lose. It would be a matter of seeing how early you need to stop using the devices.

 

[Bruce Stephens]

But that's my own fault, I do try and use the warmer screen colour to take the blue light away from my eyes,

I do the same (or rather, I turn on the iPad setting that does it for me) but as I understand it there's not a whole lot of evidence that it makes any difference. The amount of light from these devices just doesn't seem significant compared with the sun on a really cloudy day, and biologically there's not that much evidence that the light from an iPad will make any difference to sleep.

The stimulation from using an iPad (or other device) is a different thing altogether and I think that's where most scientists recommend changes (so don't read email, news, etc., at night, because that's quite likely to wake you up). I'm not sure about reading stories. Probably depends on the stories (but I'm not that sure it matters whether you're reading them on paper, on a Kindle, or on an iPad).

But as @Amity Island says, avoiding using an iPad late at night is an easy thing to try, and problems with sleep often seem subtle and complicated so if some simple things work then that's obviously good.

 

[Leadinglights]

My other half (not diabetic) is recently having problems sleeping, struggling to get to sleep or waking up and not being able to get back to sleep. He has found wearing an eye mask and taking herbal sleeping pills (Nytol herbal or Sleepeze ) have helped, though not completely solved the problem.

 

[Sarahp]

Hi Everyone,

I am having a really bad time sleeping properly at the moment, am not sure if it's my T2 diabetes or if there are things on my mind ? If I am lucky I might get one decent night of say a good 5 hours, even though I realise I need more than that. It does not help that I do sometimes get up in the night to pass water, usually 2-3 times in one night, I always have a bottle of water at the side of my bed as I end up with a really dry mouth, so have a couple of mouthfuls before going back to sleep, just enough to wet my tongue and throat.

There have been the odd few nights when I have not slept at all, even though I have been lay in bed and resting. The best and easiest thing to do is get up and stay up till I am really tired later that day and go to bed earlier, just because I am so tired.

I realise this will have an effect on my T2 and also cortisol levels. I do meditate sometimes, but think I need to do it a lot more than I have done. How do you guys manage to hopefully sleep well, do you meditate, or just sit in a quiet room and relax, do you have any tips to help me sort my backside out as I feel I am letting myself down, when I do know better having previously worked in the NHS for 18 years in dialysis and with some of the patients I dealt with being diabetic.

Thanks in advance for any replies.

Brett

Between bathroom issues thanks to bladder and pancreatitis issues plus neuropathy I am up most of the night until around now. Two things that I use to help me wind down are apps for music for relaxation or meditations, I prefer the music! The American accents on some meditations wake me up for some reason!
Insight timer app is a mix of free and paid content and has some lovely relaxing free music.
BBC sounds app has a subscription/ podcast called the sleeping forecast which sounds odd but for me works well, light relaxing themed music with occasional bursts of the weather forecast from the radio! The speech is low so not grating and I find it soothing but would say it’s an acquired taste! The soft music chosen gives me the most benefit.
I know others love true meditation apps but I post these as alternative suggestions and I use low headphones to help me so not to disturb my husband especially as he’s a shift worker!

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

When I wake to go to the toilet, I am walking about like I am tipsy, even though I am not,

I wonder whether that might just be the exhaustion? When I’ve had periods of disrupted sleep, as I get more and more tired I feel more and more wobbly trying to get out of bed.

Like @Inka I found breathing, mindfulness, and meditation exercises helpful - both as a regular part of the rhythm of the day to build the practice, and also as a settling exercise at the end of the day. I found guided sessions helpful.

Apparently if you can settle your breathing, and fall into an easy rhythm where you breathe out for a longer count than you breathe in (eg in for 1and2and3and4, and breathe out counting out up to 6 or 7) even if this is only for a couple of breaths, your brain is rapidly placed in a relaxation mode.

Hope you are able to find ways to settle your ‘doing’ mind, and discover some relaxation techniques that work for you, and help you to regain your sleep pattern.