I used to joke about the fact that the last good night’s sleep I got was in 1984, but really it was closer to the truth. I have Fibromyalgia, which causes sleep disturbance (or the chicken/egg theory is that sleep disturbance causes it) and also severe arthritis which causes pain especially at night. I’ve had the FM for over 25 years, and sleep problems even before that. I think I’ve had them since I was a young child.
I’d have both trouble falling asleep (because of pain) and problems sleeping deeply. I also had problems of waking up after a few hours and not being able to go back to sleep. I think I averaged maybe 5 hours a night for the last 25 years, and during menopause 4 hours if I was lucky.
About a year ago I decided to try an OTC sleep aid(Unisom). I just took one tab a night and like magic I started sleeping like a baby. With the FM I’m very sensitive to medication of any type, and can often take less. I tried half a tab, worked just as well.
Shortly after I started sleeping well (8-9 hours) I noticed that my FBS was lower than it had ever been. I finally (before the sleep tab) had gotten it down to 100-120 most of the time, with a great deal of effort, but couldn’t budge it from there. Now I was averaging 69 -89 on a regular basis. I even tried not eating right away and it still stayed
about the same. All of my other numbers decreased as well, but since they were already good I wasn’t concerned with them.
Being a scientific type, I tried not taking the aid for a week. Not only did my fasting numbers increase, I had the worst FM flare-up that I’d had for years!!!! That was it for me, I’m taking the aid. It’s not supposed to be habit forming, and it works so well I’m not going to
worry about it.
Here’s some links I searched on sleep and diabetes. There are a lot out there, this is just a select few, click on the titles:
Body Clock Linked To Diabetes And High Blood Sugar
Blood Glucose Regulation During Sleep In Normal and Diabetic Subjects
Insufficient Sleep Associated With Poorer Blood Glucose Control In Diabetic African Americans
Sleep Deprivation Linked to Prediabetes
Short-sleepers” may develop blood sugar abnormality that can lead to diabetes
Short Sleep Duration Affects Development Of Blood Sugar Abnormality That Can Lead To Diabetes
Lack of Sleep has Genetic Link With T2 Diabetes
Lizzy
© EMO 3/12
Knowledge is Power
When I was diagnosed, close to 11 years ago, I was told “you are diabetic”, given a prescription for some medication, and told to wait for a nurse to come in and give me an insulin shot. When I picked up the prescription I was given a 10-page booklet telling me “All About How to Mange Diabetes”, and sent on my way. That was the extent of my “education”. 
Amazing to read a story so similiar to my own–sleep and pain issues. I was just recently diagnosed with T2. My A1C was never pre-diabetic. I just jumped right into it with both feet. Knew about the relationship between pain and sleep (or is it sleep and pain), didn’t know about their relationship to diabetes. Thanks for the info.
Hi CG,
Yes both sleep and pain levels can affect diabetes. A lot of people are not aware of that and are quite surprised to find out about it.
Lizzy
Lizzy, thank God you are doing what you are doing. I am t2 and have been for years. I have been shocked at the attitude of most of the Doctors attitudes toward Diabetes. Anyway I’m new here and don’t know how to reach you or where to go to talk to other folks like me. I’ve been away from regular sodas and diet sodas for a very long time. A few days ago I drank a diet coke then 2 diet cokes. Today (9-10-12) I consumed 4 diet cokes!! Stupid. I did my normal testing and found my BS at 236 which I haven’t been at for months. I looked at the ingredients and found something called Aspartame. I’m pretty sure that is the smoking gun. Well I’ll know by tomorrow. Help!! Lizzy
Alan Aspartame is an artificial sweetener and shouldn’t have raised your BG levels at all. It has no carbs or sugar in it. It must have been something else you ate or drank, or your liver might have kicked in if you went too long without eating. I’ve never known anyone for whom that substance raised blood glucose levels.
Lizzy
Yikes! And I believe it. I know when I have a lack of sleep, I am less lkleiy to exercise (claiming I am tired hmmm how about that??). I’ve been slowly working at getting more sleep each night, and I’m also taking more time to workout. Coincidence? I don’t think so.
Hi Sara,
That’s true. It’s also true that you tend to eat more when you’re tired. I guess trying to increase the energy that you lost by lack of sleep. It doesn’t work though.
Lizzy