Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jen on October 24, 2012 at 6:17am

That's a good idea, thanks! I do keep low supplies in my bedside table, but having them out where I might notice them could help.

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Permalink Reply by Clare on October 24, 2012 at 6:40am

I find if I drink a lot of anything before I go to bed I always have to get up to pee at some point in the night, usually at a couple of points in the night. I have my glucometer, strips, etc on a shelf in the bathroom. I turn on the night light sit down and test. On my bedside table I always have a couple of glucose tabs. But I do understand the semi-conscious response to lows. And I'm not sure if there is an easy fix to that.
Considering the drop from 290 to 73 you more than likely went below 73 and then your liver kicked in to bring you up. But because you had some of the big correction still on board your liver couldn't act appropriately enough.
Since you have seen this happen routinely with site changes, is there any way to pre-bolus for a site change or check with the CDE or endo how to better control it ?

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Permalink Reply by Jen on October 24, 2012 at 7:06am

When I told my CDE about it I told her I tend to try and deal with it by doing a 0.5 unit bolus, which she agreed with. It doesn't happen every time, so doing a bigger bolus would make me nervous. My CDE also suggested leaving old sites in for four hours after a site change, which I do if the site isn't super irritated like the one last night was. I'll probably ask my endocrinologist about it at our next appointment, which is in early January.

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Permalink Reply by MyBustedPancreas on October 24, 2012 at 9:47am

Too funny because I just wrote a blog post on this topic.

One thing I do is to try and never change out a site before going to bed.  I've had sites fail before and it was horrible because I didn't wake up in time.  I always try to change my sites so that I have at least three hours before falling asleep to make sure it's working.  I prefer to just stay awake if necessary and wait to fall asleep, rather than falling asleep and having to wake up in the middle of the night.

It does sound like you went severely low, but your liver kicked in a bit and brought you back up.  My understanding is that lows in your sleep, while scary, are not as dangerous as we sometimes think.  In most cases, your liver is going to kick in.  From what I've been told by two endos now, dead-in-bed syndrome (what we probably all fear most) is more likely to be the result of some form of autonomic neuropathy, rather than a severe low. I don't know how true this is, but that's what I was told by two different endos now.  I guess the verdict is still out.

I like the suggestion of keeping a meter in the bathroom and then drinking some liquids before bed.  I also find that if I have to do a correction before going to sleep, eating a small, high-protein, high-fat snack with some carbs helps keep me from dropping too low/fast.

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Permalink Reply by Jen on October 24, 2012 at 5:58pm

I actually did change my site at 8:00, which was about two hours before I went to bed. The problem is it takes me more time before a site seems to settle in. I usually try not to change sites before bed, but in this case my old site was extremely irritated (actually more irritated than I've ever seen a site!).

My fear of overnight lows isn't so much of dying as the possibility of not waking up in the morning. That happened to me several times growing up and is pretty scary for everyone. I live alone, so there is no one to help if I ever didn't wake up (of course, people at work would notice, but that wouldn't be until I didn't show up for an hour or two).

I've been diagnosed with SVT which is a type of rapid heart rate arrhythmia, and while researching it I stumbled across and article about how dead-in-bed syndrome is caused by low blood sugar triggering an arrhythmia which eventually turns fatal. So this does make me a bit more nervous, knowing that I'm already prone to such things.

I do find that in order for me to wake up from a low I have to be very low (like it's rare I wake up from a low at a blood sugar higher than about 2.5/45). I'm not sure if this is just from having T1 for over 20 years or what. During the day I'm better at sensing lows, although as a kid and teenager I was very hypoglycemic unaware even during the day. Yesterday I did have a low of 1.7/30 without noticing, though, which could have predisposed me to subsequent lows without symptoms.

Times like this I really wish I had a CGM so I could see what is going on!

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Permalink Reply by Elizabeth on October 24, 2012 at 10:28am

Eric has an alarm clock that is embedded within a camp light. You can set the alarm to turn on just the sound, or to turn on the light dimly, or to turn it on brightly. Or, if you want, it can do two of the three. I don't usually have the light go on because I don't need it, I use a flashlight instead so I won't wake Eric. Maybe what you need is a light that goes on at the same time as your alarm to really wake you up? They say that light is the trigger that gets the brain into "daytime" mode.

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Permalink Reply by Jen on October 24, 2012 at 5:59pm

Interesting, I wonder if you can buy alarm clocks like this. Right now I'm using my iPhone which works quite well because I can set multiple alarms and turn them on or off as necessary, but light might help, too, if indeed the problem is that I'm half asleep.

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Permalink Reply by Megan S on October 24, 2012 at 12:02pm

I've been waking up drenched in sweat a few times a week. My fasting BS has been relatively high (6-8). Once I'm asleep there's absolutely no chance of me waking up, so I haven't been testing overnight.

I'm only on Metformin, which I take a dose of several hours before bed. Do you guys think I'm going low?

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Permalink Reply by Jen on October 24, 2012 at 6:01pm

I don't know as much about Type 2 medications, but my understanding is that metformin alone is very unlikely to cause lows. Someone else probably knows more about this than I do, though.

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Permalink Reply by Stemwinder on October 24, 2012 at 6:30pm

Metformin is very unlikely to cause low bs unless it is taken in combination with a Sulfonylurea type drug. Metformin works by lowering insulin resistant and controlling how the liver dumps glucose. Sulfonylureas work by increasing insulin production in the pancreas and can cause lows especially when taken with other T2 drugs. I'm not sure that it's even possible for metformin to cause a low when taken alone.

Gary

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Permalink Reply by Chris Miller on October 24, 2012 at 6:46pm

I don't set my alarm. But I usually have a cup of tea at bedtime, so sometime between midnight and 3 a.m. I'm usually up to use the bathroom. I check my blood sugars, on average, 5 nights a week, and I never set my alarm. It's just become part of my nightly routine now.

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Permalink Reply by Nicole on October 30, 2012 at 1:27pm

I used this tip last night - had a cup of tea before bed, and it worked like a charm. I got up at 3am and tested at 2.9 so it was a good thing I woke up! I'm going to turn this into a nightly routine. Night-time lows scare me, so I think this will help :)

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