You want to get a good night’s sleep but wake up frequently, or perhaps it takes a long time to fall asleep. What you may not know is that your diabetes could be contributing to your sleeping difficulties. There’s a cycle that eventually develops. Poor sleep makes it harder to manage diabetes. When you have diabetes, however, then your risk of poor sleep quality increases. This article explores different ways diabetes can affect your sleep quality and considers what you can do about it.
Diabetes Complications And Your Sleep Quality
When looking at how diabetes affects sleep quality, it’s important to consider the complications and how the condition affects the body to get a clearer picture. Diabetes can have various effects on the body, and some of these may interfere with sleep.
Nocturnal Hypoglycemia
While diabetics need to worry about hyperglycemia, they are also at a greater risk of experiencing a decline in blood sugar levels. When hypoglycemia develops, it means your blood sugar levels are too low. This can sometimes happen at night, so you may start to sweat and experience shivers. These symptoms can cause you to wake up at night, disrupting your sleep. Nocturnal hypoglycemia can also be dangerous, as it’s not always possible to wake up and address the low blood sugars when you are sleeping.
A simple way to counteract this problem is to have a snack containing some carbohydrates before you go to bed. Choose a snack that can provide your body with complex carbohydrates. Consider a hard-boiled egg, some nuts, or whole-wheat crackers with low-fat cheese on top. These are also high in protein and healthy fats. Avoid processed foods and candy as a snack, as they cause a sudden spike in glucose levels and won’t help keep your blood sugar stable during the night.
Restless Leg Syndrome
Restless leg syndrome creates an urge to move your legs consistently. This is an issue that affects a large number of individuals who have diabetes. If you have restless leg syndrome, the symptoms will usually be worse at night. This can make it hard for you to fall asleep, as you’ll constantly need to resist the urge that restless leg syndrome creates. One study looked at the potential connection between diabetes and restless leg syndrome. The researchers found that about 8.1% of diabetics have restless leg syndrome. Those who use insulin as part of their treatment had a higher incidence compared to diabetics who use other drugs to manage the condition. The study also confirmed that restless leg syndrome causes poor sleep quality among those affected.
There are a couple of strategies that can help to reduce the intensity of restless leg syndrome. Try leg stretching exercises, as they may help you control these urges better. Another thing to consider is your intake of caffeine. If you drink coffee or other caffeinated beverages close to bedtime, then the risk of restless leg syndrome keeping you awake increases. Some people also find that leg massages help manage this condition.
Peripheral Neuropathy
When you struggle to keep your blood glucose levels within the target range, hyperglycemia can lead to nerve damage over time. As nerves become damaged, their functionality is reduced. This leads to what is known as peripheral neuropathy. This can cause numbness in your extremities and also contribute to pain sensations. When peripheral neuropathy causes you to experience pain at night, it can keep you awake. You may also wake up regularly in response to pain.
Specific diet and lifestyle factors can potentially help to improve these symptoms. You can also talk to your healthcare provider about the use of certain drugs that can reduce pain at night due to peripheral neuropathy. Keeping your blood sugar levels within your target range is essential to reducing the impact of peripheral neuropathy on your sleep. You may also find it helpful to exercise regularly, as this helps to increase blood circulation toward your extremities, which are the parts of your body that are often first affected by peripheral neuropathy.
Depression
Diabetes does not directly cause depression, but living with a chronic disease puts extra strain on the mind. Many people who are diagnosed with diabetes eventually develop depression as they worry about complications that they may face down the line. In addition to depression, anxiety is another mental health concern that can develop. In one study, researchers find that as many as 87% of people with diabetes have some level of depression. While more than half of these individuals had mild depression, it can progressively get worse over time.
Depression causes feelings of sadness and often makes the affected person feel unmotivated. There are different ways in which the development of depression can cause problems when it comes to sleep. Depression can directly affect your sleep, as you may find yourself lying awake with depressive feelings and thoughts at night. This makes it harder for you to fall asleep.
When you are depressed, you may lack the motivation to care for your diabetes properly. Perhaps you do not feel like exercising, even if you previously enjoyed it. This lack of exercise can increase insulin resistance and accumulate excess weight. When this happens, your diabetes management declines in terms of your progress. In turn, you may start to experience a worse impact of diabetes on your life. The peripheral neuropathy may worsen as blood sugars remain high and cause damage to your nerves.
Bottom Line
Restless leg syndrome, nocturnal hypoglycemia, breathing problems, depression, and several other complications of diabetes can cause you to experience poor sleep. These problems can result in fragmented sleep, eventually leading to a poorer quality of life. There are ways to improve your sleep as a diabetic, but it all starts with following a good management plan.