Nocturnal hypoglycemia can affect people who:
Skip meals, particularly dinner
Exercise before bedtime
Drink alcohol before bedtime
Have infections
Symptoms of night-time hypoglycemia
Sometimes you may wake up during an episode of nocturnal hypoglycemia.
However, if you don’t, you may notice one or more of the following indications that hypoglycemia may have occurred whilst you were asleep.
- Waking with a headache
- Experiencing seemingly unprovoked sleep disturbance
- Feeling unusually tired
- Waking with damp bed clothes and sheets from sweating
- Having a clammy neck
Testing blood sugar levels at about 2 a.m. to 3 a.m. for a few consecutive nights may help a person find out whether low blood sugar is causing the symptoms. Continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) devices can also help. Some of these devices sound an alarm when blood sugar is too high or too low.
What should I do if this happens?
People and their partners or roommates should learn to recognize the signs of nighttime hypoglycemia. Be prepared! Ask your doctor for an emergency glucagon kit. This kit contains a fast-acting medication that can be injected if the person can’t be woken up. Store the kit in a bedside drawer for easy access.
To sum it all up, Nocturnal hypoglycemia occurs when blood glucose levels fall below 70 mg/dl while sleeping at night and it may be prevented by decreasing the evening insulin dose or by adding more food to the bedtime snack. And do not forget to use The Spike App to send you insulin reminders!