Hypoglycemia during night

We received several feedback from our readers on their experience with Hypoglycemia during night. So, here is a post that throws more light on this.

Hypoglycemia in the night is most common among people on insulin, but diabetes patients on oral medicines also face this problem. How does one know if they experienced Hypoglycemia during night? Some of the signs to watch out for are:

• When you wake up you notice that the bed sheet and your clothes are damp due to sweating
• You feel very tired after waking up
• Experience a lot of sleep disturbance
• You wake up with a bad headache

Some of the causes of the night-time hypoglycemia are – skipping dinner, skipping night time snack (if you are having one usually), your physical activity during certain times of the day, high insulin dosage, even alcohol consumption.

Treating night-time Hypoglycemic episodes is the same as treating general Hypoglycemia (usually solved by having sugar/glucose/quick acting carbohydrate snack – follow the steps recommended by your doctor)

How to adjust Insulin to prevent this: It is recommended to take a blood sugar test at 3 AM.This value together with before bed (after dinner) and the following day’s fasting sugar can help you identify how your blood sugars are varying in the night. With this data please speak to your doctor, who can guide you on how to adjust your insulin to prevent Hypoglycemia.

HealthPlix Diabetes App has a logbook well-suited for recording this. Please make use of this to keep track of your blood sugars and wake up bright and hale!

• Self-Management