Sleeping?

[IrishJoe]

I am having horrible sleep patterns.

If I got to bed early I cannot sleep properly and then remain awake until about 9am as I end up reading before collapsing into exhaustion

If I go to bed late I am too tired to get up 8 hours later and tend to over sleep.

If I get a hypo at night I end up over sleep too.

Its quite irritating and I've not been sleeping properly either, I toss and turn a lot according to my mum.

[dgrilli]

This has been a debilitating problem for me also. I had my Thyroid checked and was a .36 on the T3 and the normal scale is .35 to 5.0 so I'm suspecting a problem with HypoThyroidism.

[lorilei]

Joe, it sounds like stress! I get like that too. i have to admit that i take a small amount of benadryl every night to sleep..it helps me bunches... the long term effects of lack of sleep can be rough and debilitating. take care of yourself!

[Evermont]

Try some of these things: WebMD Sleep Hygiene (http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/guide/sleep-hygiene)

[Psycho Penguin]

Are your sugars ok? I have problems sleeping when my sugars go crazy. You might want to try a sleep medication from the doctor.. although that won't help the oversleeping problem.

[IrishJoe]

well if I could sleep when I go to bed it might help. eg last night I was tired and could have slept at 2am... but I didn't actually go to sleep until about 6ish which just ruins me. In addition I'm more irritable and prone to losing my temper. Something I've not done since I was a kid. Its scary

Edit: thanks that website was informative!

[UpNorth]

I used to have some sleeping problems. But if my head is full of thoughts when i'm about to fall asleep and it's keeping me awake, i just force myself to think about nothing. It takes some practise and a whole lot of diciplin, but after getting the hang of it, it's working wonders. Also, only use your bed for sleeping (and sex) so no watching TV, reading or anything in bed. As soon as you feel tired, go to bed!

Make sure you calm down before going to sleep. So say if you've been out or working, don't sleep directly. Just read or watch TV for a while, or something else that will just make you relax. When in bed. Take long deep breaths and just feel your whole body relax and drift off to sleep.

Also, try to get some regularity with your sleep. Try to go to bed around the same time everyday- i know, that sounds easier than it is! And don't sleep to late in the morning. So try to get up early even if you've fallen asleep late.

My sleeping is rather regular, i go to bed before midnight in the weekdays and get up at 5am or 5.30am, in the weekends i sleep when tired and get up when feeling like it:T My body knows if it's weekend or not by now so it's no problem for me to change my pattern in the weekends:D

Hope you'll get to sleep well real soon!

[Evermont]

...Edit: thanks that website was informative!

You're welcome Joe!

The trick to finding good info sometimes is knowing clinical terms. I didn't know it was called "sleep hygiene" until someone I know had a problem with it and got some professional help. You can google "sleep hygiene" and get all sorts of good info, but if you just google "sleep" you'll probably just lose more of it.

Sleep is important for diabetics - I've posted science articles here about the connections. Sleep is another area where we have some control too, so diabetics should take note and work on it. There are many factors to sleep hygiene so perhaps lots of opportunity for improvement. I like to take a comprehensive approach to sleep, or exercise, or diet because you can do a lot of things right but if you're missing something all the other effort could be wasted.

Comprehensive sleep hygiene is just a part of comprehensive diabetes management, which is just a part of comprehensive health maintenance, which is just a part of living the good life. :)