[jen_slc]

I know EXACTLY what you're talking about. These kinds of episodes haven't happened to me as frequently lately, but when I think about it, I've been experiencing them for at least the last year or two. I feel like an idiot admitting this, but it was only in the last month or so that I considered they might be blood sugar-related!

My hallucinations/visualizations tend to involve giant bugs on my ceiling about to attack me or weaving a web around my bed, etc. I wake up very suddenly, see what I think is a giant spider about to jump on my face, scramble for the light/my glasses and leap out of bed, arms flailing and everything. My heart feels like it's about to explode and I'm usually hot and sweaty.

Sometimes I realize immediately that I've just confused the ceiling fan or shadows for giant attacking bugs, and sometimes it takes me a few minutes of standing paralyzed at the side of my bed, turning my head from side to side to make sure nothing's sneaking up behind me, before I convince myself that nothing's there.

Sometimes I am "with it" enough to test my BG and most times it has been low (40s, 50s); sometimes I don't think I notice what physical state I might be in and I just go back to bed without testing and/or treating. And in the morning I wake up on the low side or on the high side.

Maybe they are hypos and I sustain a hypo-level all thru the night to wake up low, maybe sometimes my BG rebounds from a hypo so I wake up high and maybe sometimes the stress causes the high in the morning? Or maybe, it's nothing to do with BG at all, and it's an anxiety attack. Or maybe I just have weird dreams and see giant bugs because I'm not able to see anything without my glasses/contacts (my eyes are really bad) and because when I was younger I had several unfortunate and scary experiences with spiders.

Per my endo's request, I am now keeping a detailed BG/sleep diary to determine if it's BG-related or stress-related. Personally, I feel fine, not stressed out at all. Since my appt, I've had 2 episodes: the first one I was not "with it" so just went back to bed without testing or treating; I woke up the next morning at 274. The second time I was with it, tested at 75, treated, and woke up the following morning at 60. I should also note that I've had nighttime hypos with NO giant bug hallucinations too.

When these episodes happen, train yourself to test your BG; that's what I'm trying to do. You probably track your BG already, so I would suggest also tracking your hallucinations, stress level and exercise to see if there's any correlation. How are your bedtime and morning BG levels when these hallucinations happen?