If you have diabetes and wake up at night to go to the bathroom, this is called nocturia. This is because high blood sugar makes the kidneys make more pee.

Just what is nocturia?

Nocturia means going to the bathroom at night. This means having to get up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom.

It is normal to need to go to the bathroom up to once during the night. If you need to go to the bathroom more than once at night, it could mean that you have a short-term or long-term problem.

Causes of nocturia

There are several reasons why you might need to go to the bathroom more often than usual at night, including one or more of the following:

 

Diabetes insipidus
High blood glucose levels
Autonomic neuropathy
Urinary tract infections
Cystitis
Prostate diseases
Pregnancy
Excessive fluid intake – particularly alcohol or caffeine intake
Taking diuretic medications
Parkinson’s disease
Multiple sclerosis

Nocturia is more likely to appear as we get older.

Diabetes and nocturia

When blood glucose levels are high, the body may get rid of extra glucose through the urine. This means that there is more sugar in the urine, which makes the body make more pee.

If you usually have high blood sugar, you may be more likely to get a urinary tract infection, which can make you need to go to the bathroom more often at night.

Diabetes insipidus, a type of diabetes that doesn’t cause problems with blood sugar levels, is closely linked to having to go to the bathroom at night.

How can nocturia be treated?

The best way to treat nocturia will depend on what’s causing it. If your blood sugar levels are higher than what is recommended, lowering them could help you sleep better by reducing the need to go to the bathroom at night. For help controlling your blood sugar better, talk to your doctor or the diabetes team.

Talk to your doctor if nocturia gets bothersome or happens more often than usual. This could be a sign of a condition that isn’t linked to diabetes.

In some cases, your doctor may give you medicine to help you go to the bathroom less often at night. You may be given a diuretic to take earlier in the day to help you get rid of extra pee before bed.

 

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Obesity is a major risk factor for both sleep apnea and type 2 diabetes.

If you feel suffocated or out of breath when you wake up, you may have obstructive sleep apnea. This condition can be handled effectively and can help with a number of health problems, such as diabetes and high blood pressure.

Can Diabetes Cause Sleep Apnea?

 

Blood sugar levels that are too high lead to type 2 diabetes. Either your pancreas isn’t making enough insulin to control your high blood sugar, or your cells are no longer responding to insulin.

Diabetes can be caused by a number of things, but being overweight is one of the most common ones. People with type 2 diabetes who are overweight may be more likely to develop sleep apnea.

Why do people with Type 2 diabetes have a higher rate of sleep apnea?

Getting enough sleep is good for your health in general. When we don’t get enough sleep for a long time, it affects every part of our bodies, including our blood sugar levels.

Over time, sleep apnea can make it so hard to fall asleep and stay asleep because it wakes you up many times during the night. Less insulin is released into your body after you eat because you didn’t get enough sleep.

More stress hormones are released by your body, which help you stay awake. However, insulin is not able to do its job properly. If you have too much glucose in your blood, you are more likely to get type 2 diabetes.

When insulin doesn’t work right, blood sugar levels rise until they are too high to protect the eyes, kidneys, nerves, or heart. Diabetes is one of the health issues that can happen when you don’t get enough sleep.

Can Sleep Apnea Affect Blood Sugar Levels?

When you don’t get enough sleep, your body releases less insulin, which causes your blood sugar to rise. People with both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes can have sleep apnea. But not getting enough sleep can only really lead to Type 2 diabetes.

If someone loses sleep every night, their blood sugar levels may still be higher than average when they go to the doctor, even if they watch what they eat and work out. For health reasons, sleep is just as important as what you eat and how much you work out.

How do people with diabetes know if they have obstructive sleep apnea?

People with diabetes can look for signs of obstructive sleep apnea even before they are told they have it.

Symptoms of OSA include:

Repeated nights of restless sleep
Loud snoring
Waking up with a sore or dry throat
Waking up gasping or choking for air
Morning headaches
Grogginess or lack of energy during the day
Poor concentration and poor memory
Mood changes
Reduced sex drive

One or more of these signs could mean that you might have sleep apnea. A sleep apnea test is the only way to be sure of a diagnosis.

 

How Can You Treat Sleep Apnea?

People who have been diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea can be given a prescription for CPAP treatment, which stands for continuous positive airway pressure. People with sleep apnea think this medicine is the best because it works so well and causes so little trouble.

People who use CPAP just sleep with a mask tied to a machine on their face. A continuous flow of pressurized air is sent through the CPAP machine all night to keep the lungs open while the person sleeps.

Online stores like The CPAP Shop can sell you cheap CPAP equipment without making you deal with your insurance company.

When apneas don’t wake the person up several times during the night, they can get a good night’s sleep every night. Getting enough restful sleep is an important part of taking care of Type 2 diabetes in a healthy way.

It is important to know that sleep apnea was also common in people with prediabetes, a disease that can lead to Type 2 diabetes.1 If you have prediabetes or think you might have it and are having sleep apnea symptoms, you should get tested.

 

How Diabetics Can Get an Obstructive Sleep Apnea Diagnosis?

People with diabetes can talk to their doctor about obstructive sleep apnea. Two ways to get tested for sleep apnea are to stay the night at a sleep center or do a home test in the comfort of their own bed.

If you buy the Full Care Package from Sleep Care online,

At check-out, patients will fill out a short sleep and health assessment.
Get a one-time use WatchPAT ONE E home sleep test in the mail.
You can take the test in the comfort of your own bed.
Put your data in the cloud in the morning.
To go over the results, set up a 15-minute video visit with one of our sleep doctors.
Find out if you need PAP therapy and get your prescription for it.

Telehealth services and home sleep apnea tests are now available all over the country.

 

 

Home sleep apnea tests and telehealth services are now available nationwide.

What Are the Effects of Sleep Apnea Treatments on Diabetes?

Sleep apnea treatments are not a cure for Type 2 diabetes, but they can help diabetics keep their blood sugar levels in a healthy range. They should be used along with a healthy diet, regular exercise, and any medicines your doctor prescribes.

People with diabetes who have sleep apnea can start to get the good sleep they need again after sleep apnea kept it from them.

People with diabetes may start to feel better and be more awake in the morning if they follow their treatment plan and use their CPAP correctly. It’s possible that their blood sugar will start to rise less often.

Other signs of sleep apnea may also start to go away, like headaches or dry mouth in the morning, irritability, moodiness, sadness, and feeling sleepy during the day.

 

How to Manage Diabetes with Sleep Apnea?

 

A lot of people who have both diabetes and sleep apnea can take care of both conditions well. People with diabetes can count on their doctor to help them come up with a healthy diet and exercise plan that will keep their blood sugar levels in the normal range.

People with diabetes, whether Type 1 or Type 2, may also need to take prescription drugs to help them control their condition.

For sleep apnea, diabetics can stick to the same sleep schedule every night and use their CPAP as directed. Their airway stays open every night while they sleep if they follow their CPAP instructions. This helps them get the good sleep they need.

Taking care of sleep apnea also means making other healthy choices, like not smoking, drinking alcohol, or eating big meals before bed. These things can also help keep diabetes under control in a healthy way.

One of the best ways for people with sleep apnea to make sure they sleep better and healthier every night is to work hard at controlling their condition.

That means they need to make sure they use their CPAP machine as directed and talk to their doctor to see if the pressure settings need to be changed to meet their changing sleep apnea needs.

Sleep trackers can help you figure out how well you slept.

Sleep trackers are one way that many people with sleep apnea can keep an eye on how well they sleep. If you use a sleep watch, you can see when you are losing sleep and when you are sleeping the best at night.

There are now many sleep watches on the market, and new ones are coming out all the time. A lot of them are trackers that you can put on your wrist. Some clip to your pillow or to the side of your bed.

Most sleep trackers use accelerometers and small motion monitors to measure how much and how well you sleep. They use accelerometers to track how much you move while you sleep. An program is then used to look at this data and guess how long and how well someone slept.

The Sleep Foundation says that a sleep tracker with only an accelerometer isn’t the best choice if you want to get more information about your sleep stages. This is because there isn’t much difference in movement between the stages of sleep, so the accelerometer can’t properly measure sleep stages.

 

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Hypoglycemia at night is a sign of danger for people with diabetes and should never be put up with.
Low blood sugar at night

Some people experience nighttime hypoglycemia, which is when their blood sugar levels drop below 70 mg/dl while they sleep.

Almost half of all episodes of low blood sugar happen at night while people sleep, and more than half of all serious episodes happen at night.

Not having enough glucose in your blood at night can be dangerous. The good news is that this condition can be avoided by planning ahead and teaching partners and roommates how to spot and treat it.

 

Who’s at risk?

Nocturnal hypoglycemia can affect people who:

Skip meals, particularly dinner

Exercise before bedtime

Drink alcohol before bedtime

Have infections

People who have previously experienced nocturnal hypoglycemia:

Take a type of insulin at dinner known as NPH, which becomes most effective six to eight hours after each dose

What are the warning signs?

Call your doctor if you or your partner notice the following symptoms at night:

Restless, irritable sleep

Hot, clammy or sweaty skin

Trembling or shaking

Changes in breathing (suddenly breathing fast or slowly)

Nightmares, sometimes rousing the person from sleep

Racing heartbeat

Doctors are most concerned about people who sleep through these symptoms without noticing them.

 

What should I do if this happens?

People should learn how to spot the signs of hypoglycemia at night with their partners or roommates. Do not forget! Get a glucagon kit from your doctor in case of an emergency. If the person can’t be woken up, this kit has a quick-acting drug that can be shot. Keep the kit in a drawer next to your bed so it’s easy to get to.

If someone is asleep or can’t sit up, DO NOT PUT ANYTHING IN THEIR MOUTH.

If you can’t wake the person up, call 911 if there isn’t an emergency glucagon kit nearby. Your partner or neighbor should follow the directions on the glucagon kit to fill the syringe with medicine and give it to the person.

Once they are awake, they should eat something and use a home test kit to check their blood sugar every few hours. The person’s doctor should be told about the shot after it is given.

If the person can wake up and sit up without help, they should be given a glucose source that works quickly. Hard candy, fruit juice, glucose paste, or tablets are all good choices. You can get these at most shops.

The person should eat something and use a home test kit to check their blood sugar every few hours once they are fully awake.

Always see the doctor again.

As soon as you feel nighttime hypoglycemia, you should call your doctor right away. He or she and the doctor should try to figure out what went wrong and how to keep it from happening again.

Most of the time, the doctor will say:

Changing how much insulin or other medicines you take or when you take them

Setting an early morning alarm for the patient to check their blood sugar levels and see how often the events happen.

Putting them to sleep and having them wear a continuous glucose monitor that checks their blood sugar every five minutes and has an alarm that goes off if levels drop too low. This choice is usually only made for people who have serious or frequent nocturnal hypoglycemia.

 

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If you feel tired when you wake up and like you didn’t get enough rest, it could mean that your blood sugar was too high during the night.

 

How Does Diabetes Affect Sleep?
It’s estimated that one in two people

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People with type 2 diabetes have trouble sleeping because their blood sugar levels aren’t steady and they have other diabetes-related symptoms. High blood sugar (hyperglycemia) or low blood sugar (hypoglycemia) at night can keep you up at night and make you tired the next day.

Like many people who have a long-term illness, sadness or stress about the illness itself may keep you up at night.

Your kidneys try to make up for high blood sugar by making you go to the bathroom more often. Going to the bathroom so often at night keeps you from getting a good night’s sleep. High blood sugar can also give you headaches, make you thirsty, and make you tired, all of which can make it hard to fall asleep.

However, low blood sugar can also happen if you don’t eat for too long or if you take the wrong amount of diabetes medicine.

The NIDDK is the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.
NIDDK study helps us learn more about and find better ways to treat some of the worst diseases that people, their families, and the country can have.

late at night. It’s possible to have bad dreams, get hot, or feel angry or confused when you wake up.

If you are tired, having trouble sleeping, or having any other signs that worry you, talk to your doctor. That person can help you figure out why you have high blood sugar and work with you to keep it stable.

 

 

 

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Getting thirsty several times during the night can be a big sign of diabetes, because your body is trying to keep your blood sugar levels steady by making you drink more water.

One of the first signs that you might have diabetes is thirst that won’t go away. Because the disease makes the blood sugar level off, it happens. Figure out how to spot and get rid of diabetes hunger.

 

Polydipsia, or having too much thirst, is a sign of diabetes. Another common sign of diabetes is polyuria, which means going to the bathroom more than normal.

 

When you’re thirsty, it’s normal to feel that way. This could happen since:

you’re not drinking enough water
you’re sweating too much
you’ve eaten something very salty or spicy

But if you don’t take care of your diabetes, it can make you thirsty all the time for no reason.

This piece tells you why having diabetes makes you thirsty all the time. We also look at how to treat diabetes that makes you thirsty all the time. You can stop or lessen this condition if you get the right medical care and treatment every day.

 

 

 

 

Why diabetes thirst occurs?

 

One of the first signs that you might have diabetes is thirst that won’t go away. Too much glucose (sugar) in your blood makes you thirsty and makes you have to go to the bathroom more often than usual.

Your body can’t use sugar from food right if you have diabetes. This makes your blood sugar build up.When you have high blood sugar, your kidneys work extra hard to get rid of the extra sugar.

You need to make more pee so that your body can get rid of extra sugar. You’ll probably have to go to the bathroom more often and make more pee.

Your body needs more water to do this. To help get rid of the extra sugar, water is even pulled from your cells. When you lose a lot of water, you may feel very thirsty.

To stay healthy, your brain will tell you to drink more water. In turn, this makes you urinate more. If you don’t get your blood sugar levels back in check, you will continue to pee and thirst because you have diabetes.