If you are taking insulin or other blood sugar medication, you may be at risk of low blood sugar levels during the night. Low blood sugar levels overnight can disrupt your sleep pattern and lead to difficulty waking in the morning and tiredness through the day.
What causes people with diabetes to be tired? Two common reasons for tiredness or lethargy are having too high or too low blood sugar levels. In both cases, the tiredness is the result of having an imbalance between one's level of blood glucose and the amount or effectiveness of circulating insulin.
If you have diabetes, too little sleep negatively affects every area of your management, including how much you eat, what you choose to eat, how you respond to insulin, and your mental health. Proper rest isn't just important for your diabetes management—it may also put you in a better mood and give you more energy!
If you have diabetes, your body doesn't release more insulin to match the early-morning rise in blood sugar. It's called the dawn phenomenon, since it usually happens between 3 a.m. and 8 a.m. The dawn phenomenon happens to nearly everyone with diabetes.
People with diabetes should eat dinner between 8 and 9 pm. Eating close to bedtime or late at night must be avoided.
Low blood sugar in the mornings, also known as morning hypoglycemia, can make people feel faint, light-headed, or confused when they wake up. Having low blood sugar in the mornings is common in people on medication for diabetes, though it can also happen for other reasons.
The symptoms you experience won't exactly match those of another person. However, the most common diabetes symptoms experienced by many people with diabetes are increased thirst, increased urination, feeling tired and losing weight.
How to get free prescriptions for diabetes medicine. If you take diabetes medicine, you're entitled to free prescriptions for all your medicines. To claim your free prescriptions, you'll need to apply for an exemption certificate.
Insulin sensitivity is a big reason that people with diabetes may fall asleep after eating. People with diabetes may not produce enough insulin or are unable to use it correctly. The lack of energy that occurs when insulin doesn't work correctly can cause people to experience drowsiness.
Fatigue/Tiredness
Blood sugar levels are always high when you have type 2 diabetes, but the sugar has a difficult time entering the cells. This causes the cells to work with less efficiency because they do not have the proper amount of energy. Because of this, a person with type 2 diabetes may feel tired all the time.
When blood glucose levels fall below 70 mg/dl while sleeping at night, the person experiences a condition called nocturnal hypoglycemia. Studies suggest that almost half of all episodes of low blood glucose — and more than half of all severe episodes — occur at night during sleep.
Fatigue is a common symptom of diabetes that is not limited to uncontrolled diabetes. Persons may complain of fatigue along with a variety of symptoms, which may together herald comorbid psychological, medical, metabolic or endocrine, and acute or chronic complications.
Too much food may cause your blood sugar level to climb too high (hyperglycemia). Talk to your diabetes health care team about how to best coordinate meal and medication schedules. Avoid sugar-sweetened beverages. Sugar-sweetened beverages tend to be high in calories and offer little nutrition.
Many people have type 2 diabetes for years without realising because the early symptoms tend to be general, or there are no symptoms at all.
People With Diabetes Can Live Longer by Meeting Their Treatment Goals. Life expectancy can be increased by 3 years or in some cases as much as 10 years. At age 50, life expectancy- the number of years a person is expected to live- is 6 years shorter for people with type 2 diabetes than for people without it.
Some people may notice they have to get up every couple of hours during the night to urinate and that they produce more urine when they do go. The presence of excess glucose can also cause the urine to have a sweet smell.
Target blood sugar levels differ for everyone, but generally speaking: if you monitor yourself at home – a normal target is 4-7mmol/l before eating and under 8.5-9mmol/l two hours after a meal.
In general: Less than 100 mg/dL (5.6 mmol/L ) is normal. 100 to 125 mg/dL (5.6 to 6.9 mmol/L ) is diagnosed as prediabetes. 126 mg/dL (7.0 mmol/L ) or higher on two separate tests is diagnosed as diabetes.
If you are struggling to get up in the morning; feeling a total lack of energy or 'fogginess' or not able to perform the tasks you normally do as simply too exhausted it may be that you actually are suffering from fatigue... and it could be a side effect of your diabetes.