Hallucinations related to low blood sugar?

[sugardumplin]

This has been happening to me more often lately than normal. I wake up at night and I see things that are real to me and they scare me. My heart rate goes up and my eyes are open (I am not sleeping) I tell my husband. i wake him up and he tells me he cant see anything. I see these things, I am not dreaming! I am wondering if this is related to low blood sugar. I decided this morning after last nights episode that I will get up and check my sugar when it happens again. It's happening like maybe 3-5 nights a week. example of stuff I am seeing, the first time I saw this, it was a chandelier being built, right in front of me. Peice by peice they would come from a pile and then to the chandelier. weird i know, i have seen some other things that are far scarier but i wont go into detail. please help if u have had something similar. thanks

[princesslinda]

I remember being extremely anxious when my blood sugars were high, and this often manifested itself in nightmares, but I never actually hallucinated.

I'd definitely suggest that you test your blood sugar around the time of these episodes.

Are you having more stress in your life that may be triggering an anxiety reaction?

[sugardumplin]

I remember being extremely anxious when my blood sugars were high, and this often manifested itself in nightmares, but I never actually hallucinated.

I'd definitely suggest that you test your blood sugar around the time of these episodes.

Are you having more stress in your life that may be triggering an anxiety reaction?

stress?!? lol. always, I live that way. so thats normal for me. I think everything is just normally stressful lately.

Do you think it could be high blood sugars instead of lows?

I swear I would tell you these things are so real if I could only touch them and snag a peice and bring it for proof!

[fgummett]

You may not be fully asleep and dreaming but are you certain that you are fully awake when this happens? Please do test your sugars and let us know. Sometimes when I am overstressed and over-tired I'll catch myself drifting in and out of sleep, never really sure which state I am in. You may be experiencing the tail-end of a dream you were having just before you started waking up?

[belyro]

I haven't hallucinated in many years, but when I was first diagnosed (as a child) I hallucinated a few times. The hallucinations were very real and very scary. (One was angry monkeys all over the livingroom.) They only happened when I had low bloodsugar.

I'm very glad it doesn't happen anymore.

[xxkarenlxx]

When I don't get enough sleep for a long enough period of time I REM while I am awake. Usually this happens exactly as you described, but also occasionally when I have been awake for hours. As long as I get enough sleep then I never see anything that isn't there.

I have a SIL who works in a sleep study environment and she has a patient who REMs awake all the time. She'll wake up to use the washroom and the dreams continue all around her to the point that she can't turn on the light because they get worse instead of going away.

If you go to the doctor and tell them about your hallucinations they'll send you for tests to determine why they are happening and how to stop it.

[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?

[Hammer]

I can't say that I've had blood sugar related hallucinations, but on rare occasions I've been in bed trying to fall asleep when I see what appears to be ghosts or spirits or swirling fog above my bed. It reminds me of those horror movies where you see the evil spirits appear in a mist like haze....weird shapes and faces swirling in a dark haze that have an ominous foreboding to them. It never occurred to me that it could be sugar related, but I guess it could.

Seeing these "ghosts" doesn't bother me. My attitude is about as blasé as you can get. I figure if it's some evil spirits or ghosts that are out to get me, then they can have me. I couldn't care less, and besides, it would be a new experience for me.

[slipperyelm]

Hammer, that's kind of funny, 'cause I was just sitting her thinking, "How awful! How scary!" as I read everyone's descriptions.

This reminds me of the wakeful "night terrors" that some children have, except that children have no recollection of them in the morning.

Curious how you all can have the clarity to know that it is "just" a hallucination during the episode, and the clarity and ability to test you BG. If I thought giant spiders were about to jump on my face, or evil spirits get me, I don't think I could just get up and walk across the room to load up my glucometer.

Well....all the more reason for me to have compassion for everybody in their varying health states.

[nryan34]

I know exactly what your talking about. Several months ago I had a car accident, I was very frustrated because it was the weekend before Thanksgiving and I was supposed to drive to Chicago the day after thanksgiving for the weekend. I thought they should have been fixing my car faster than they were. Long story short one afternoon my BS dropped soo low that I picked up my cell phone and started randomly dialing numbers in my contact list trying to get a hold of people to tell them to vote for Joe in the election. You see I had been reading the newspaper earlier that afternoon and had read about Joe Nuxall dying, and some how my mind was telling me I needed to call everyone I knew and tell them to vote for Joe and then my car would be fixed in time for my trip. Needless to say my mom and my husband were tyrying to get me to test my BS and for several days after this incident many people return my call to see why I was trying to reach them. I just rolled my eyes and let my mom and my husband explain it. I remember bits and pieces of the afternoon, but they tell the story much better. And I'm sure I don't have to tell you but I will I don't think Joe Nuxall will win the election and my car was not fixed in time for my trip. But I got there anyway cause we borrowed my inlaws car cause I couldn't miss those day after thanksgiving sales!!!!

[Hammer]

If I thought giant spiders were about to jump on my face, or evil spirits get me, I don't think I could just get up and walk across the room to load up my glucometer.

Well, for me, it's a logic thing. If you read one of my earlier posts, I somehow exist using logic instead of emotion. I figure, if there are evil spirits floating around my room and they have evil intentions for me, there isn't anything I can do to stop them, so why be afraid?

While I've never experienced huge spiders about to jump on my face, I'd react the same way.

An example of this logic thing with me....many years ago I was driving to work very early one morning and about halfway there I had a panic attack. I didn't know it was a panic attack, since I had never heard of them back then. My heart started pounding and I got lightheaded and I started to perspire. I thought I was having a heart attack. It didn't scare me or concern me in the least, I just said out loud to myself, "Well come on! If you're going to kill me, then do it and get it over with!" When the panic attack passed, I said, "Is that all? Big deal, can't you do better than that?"

I have no idea who I was talking to, but talking out loud seemed like the right thing to do. I just kept driving and forgot about it. The next day it happened to me again in about the exact same place on the road. I said the same things, but it passed so I ignored it. It wasn't till many years later when my wife started having panic attacks that I thought back to those two times and I realized that those must have been panic attacks I had.

See, logically, there wasn't anything I could do so why worry? Worrying isn't logical so I don't do it. I don't think I worry about anything...I just take things in stride.

[jen_slc]

Logic is how I work too; not, however, when I have low blood sugar!! Logic goes out the window. Yes, it's scary because your brain isn't processing normally, but, for me, the hallucination is over in a split second. So is the fear/terror (I'm not sure I'd call it terror...it's scary alright, but terror? Shock and fear maybe). And then, half the time, I am able to test; the other times I go back to bed, feeling like an idiot, but not scared at all.

Well, for me, it's a logic thing. If you read one of my earlier posts, I somehow exist using logic instead of emotion.

If I thought giant spiders were about to jump on my face, or evil spirits get me, I don't think I could just get up and walk across the room to load up my glucometer.

[birdyland]

I'm sorry I have not read everyones replies.....

I would definitely test next time you have one of these episodes. Let your SO know you want to do this so they can help you; you may not actually be awake, though you appear to be.

Look up something called "vivid dreams". I have it. I wake up seeing something plain as day that hubby can't see and of course is not there. I am not actually awake.

Good luck!

[NickT]

I Have been getting hallucinations as well.
Mine aren't so obviously hallucinations; I mean, If You can see a thousand beetles, and Everyone walking around normally; I'd be able to know that the beetles do not exist.

Equally, If You ever hallucinate anything, check for the shadow.
If there's no shadow, and everything else has a shadow, guess what? -It's not there.

So, what happens if it's an over-cast day, or You're in a nightclub?

My hallucinations, are usually of a person, (Who I don't know; sometimes they remind Me of other People, sometimes they don't,) walking over, and engaging Me in a conversation.
They act; pretty much as People do.

Everyone else, acts as if I'm not doing anything out of the ordinary, and they ignore Me. (Let's face it, if I'm talking to thin air, I'd probably want to ignore and avoid Me as well).

The latest Person I imagined, She tricked Me into drinking Red Bull, when I already had a stomach ache, (Something I associate with having too many sugars in My blood stream,) after drinking the full sugar version of the red bull, My stomach ache stopped.

I'm going to the doctors in about half an hour.
So I'll be able to confirm to You, exactly what it is, that causes diabetics to hallucinate; but I know that it's well known; that diabetes can cause that.
(Which is just as well; otherwise I might be concerned.).

[LadyLucinda]

Hi Sugardumplin,

Since last July I have been experiencing what appear to be ghosts, both semitransparent and flesh colored. I am type 2 diabetic for 7 years. I am on Glyburide/Metformin pills. I have seen ghosts or people if you prefer frequently, only in one bedroom of my house. I had an occurrence night before last. I also see splotches on the ceiling and walls of the same bedroom. They appear black and about the size of two thumbnails.

A friend of mine told me that diabetics have "seen things that are not there", so I Googled diabetic hallucinations and found this site and your post.

I have an appt with my doctor this coming Tuesday, as some of my blood sugar readings have been in the 300s, up to 327.

I also have an appt to get my eyes tested for my yearly exam.

I don't care to debate the possibility of the supernatural. I am just telling you what I've seen and continue to see. I am wide awake and my husband does not see them at all.

I will attempt a blood sugar reading after a sighting, but then my sugars have been very high lately anyway. It is unnerving so if I can get my hands to quit shaking I will try to take my blood sugar.

I only post this just to let you know you are not alone. I am ruling out everything "normal" that it could be.

The people I see are not anyone I've known in life. I am no longer as frightened as in the beginning.

I told my family doctor and she said, "Well, we don't know everything". Very astute of her.

I wish you well, and feel great empathy with you. It is not an easy thing to cope with.

Best regards,

LadyLucinda