Bad sleep leads to higher fasting bg

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benadryl dropped my fasting blood sugar i think because it allowed me to sleep through my hot flashes and get a good night sleep.

so getting a good night’s sleep is crucial for me, but a lot of the treatments for night sweats are harmful. i can’t take HRT because my mom died of breast cancer. benadryl and a lot of the anti-depressants used to treat hot flashes (like effexor and brisdelle) are anticholinergics. “Anticholinergics are a class of drugs that block the action of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine in the brain. They are used to treat diseases like asthma, incontinence, gastrointestinal cramps, and muscular spasms. They are also prescribed for depression and sleep disorders.”

the day after taking benadryl i sometimes can’s string a proper sentence together, i might miss turns i need to make while driving, etc. "Anticholinergic drugs block the action of acetylcholine. This substance transmits messages in the nervous system. In the brain, acetylcholine is involved in learning and memory."
i read that women with higher bmi’s have more night sweats, so i am hoping if i lose weight (i’m on the borderline of being overweight, but the fat is all concentrated on my belly) that would be the safest option to slow down these night sweats that drive my fasting blood sugar 10 points higher.

any thoughts?

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thoughts on what, exactly??

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my problem and how to fix it.

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Nine years post-hysterectomy and I am still awakened by hot flashes about every hour from 3AM to getting up at 6AM. I’ve found no solution to that one (or the half-dozen during the day).

I began to get fanatical about sleep after I was dx with fibromyalgia in 1996. It wasn’t so much insomnia as constantly interrupted sleep due to discomfort that makes me toss and turn. I quickly found that every damn symptom from pain to cognitive difficulties (which mimic a diabetic low, but aren’t) were worse if I didn’t spend 7-9 hours in bed, hoping for a minimum of 4-5 hours uninterrupted sleep. You should have seen me sometimes, @v_prediabetic, when I would abruptly stop a conversation in mid-sentence as I noticed I needed to get ready for bed Now. Not a gracious sight!

I’m afraid Benadryl hasn’t ever helped me in the sleep department. I took it to help dry up all the mucous of some unknown allergy for awhile and, of all things, it dried out my mouth so much I kept getting Canker sores on my tongue–imagine that–oh yuck!

When the fibromyalgia was first dx, very few treatment options were available since most were still being told it was all in their head. BUT—I did take Amitriptyline for a couple years and it very clearly helped me sleep (and lose weight because of the sleep, I think). You might ask about that, if you haven’t. Of course, it stopped working for no known reason, but it did help. Acupuncture, when I can get there regularly, does help.

I think the jury is still out on weight and frequency of hot flashes. I did see that someone is finally setting up a study about post-menopausal older women still having a low quality of life due to hot flashes a decade or more later. Maybe someone will finally get serious about helping with the misery. At times, I feel I am “Certifiable” due to sleep deprivation and the way time stops when in the throes of one in my garden or on a walk.

As to the title of your post: YES. The less sleep, the worse my fasting number—so hey–we’re 100% in this sample study!..Blessings…Please let me know as you find stuff out on this subject!..Thinking of you…Judith in Portland…

BTW—That’s my daughter with the Dalai Lama. She had taken her senior class to India where they worked in a sister school doing whatever needed doing from washing up to tutoring. Then they all got to greet the Amazing Man himself. The year before they had done a similar trip to South Africa where they worked in one of Bishop Tutu’s AIDS orphanages and also accompanied nurses into the slums to take food and medicines to families devastated by the epidemic. And They got to interview and sit with Bishop Tutu himself at the end of that trip. Needless to say, it is a very special school!

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Your daughter is so lucky!! I feel there are regular people walking around us now that have a similar spirit as the Dai Lai Lama, Jesus, Pope Francis, etc. My mom was a gentle soul who had been threw a lot, and I think she was one.

Last night I had hot flashes, but was able to go right back to sleep, so I don’t feel as dragged out as the days when the hot flash is severe with a pounding heart beat, very hot, headache, etc. My blood sugar this morning was good- 85- so I did something right yesterday- but what was it???

Have you heard about the thermoregulation theory of hot flashes- that women with them have a narrow thermal zone in which they can function, and just by taking a hot shower at night or eating spicy food or drinking a hot beverage etc, they can get hot flashes at night.

i still have a hot decaf in the morning, but i took a lukewarm shower in the morning yesterday. It wasn’t uncomfortable, and maybe it did help with having a little better sleep and much better blood sugar (85), in addition to being careful with my carb intake and not eating close to bedtime. i also don’t do any of the common hot flash triggers: no smoking, alcohol, sugar, caffeine (except for what small amount there is in decaf).

as for medicine, i remember Dr. Bernstein saying he would have to cycle patients from med to med as they would stop working. I am considering taking gabapentin, since that is one of its newer off label uses- preventing hot flashes. I read one woman’s experience where it worked for a while, then stopped. So I could take Benadryl Sunday night then gabapentin (Neurontin) on Wednesday. Then if one of those drugs stopped working, I could substitute in Brisdelle. I know Brisdelle (which is a small dose of the antidepressant Paxil) doesn’t have to be tapered down- you can take it or not take it whenever you want, same as Benadryl. I’m not sure about the gabapentin. But anyway my idea is to take different drugs on different days, with days in between of not taking anything, in an effort to prevent tolerance to any one of the drugs. I see my ob/gyn in April and will ask her for a gabapentin perscription. Then I will start the Benadryl gabapentin combo and see how that goes first. Between now and April I plan to really watch my carb intake (because higher carb makes the hot flashes worse), pay attention to hot triggers, so avoiding hot drinks, hot showers, exercise etc close to bedtime, and I will continue to try to lose weight. I am now only taking Benadryl twice a week, and then I only take it if I am really dragged out from days of not sleeping well.

i have read several women say acupuncture has helped with hot flashes- what is the schedule of treatments for it? do you continue to get treatments? how expensive are they? i will investigate Amitriptyline. Thanks for your ideas!!

PS I just saw that Amitriptyline has anticholinergic effects, just like Benadryl and Brisdelle (Paxil). I need to be very careful that I don’t overload my system with anticholinergic drugs since I have already experienced memory problems from benadryl. but i will put up with some down side in order not to feel like a zombie all the time.

this is a good website on anticholinergic drugs:
https://www.agingbraincare.org/tools/abc-anticholinergic-cognitive-burden-scale/

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Gabapentin (Neurontin) worked wonders for my hot flashes, but it doesn’t work for everyone.

Blame your inability to string together a coherent sentence on the Benadryl (and other anticholinergic meds in general). That’s why I avoid prescribing them like the plague. Anticholinergic meds become even more problematic as one ages.

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Lyrica messes up my speech clarity. I mispronounce words and have more issues with short term memory. My wife has the same (nearly identical) issues with Lyrica usage.

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rg, what dose of gabpentin did you take and for how long? did it stop working after a while? i think when i was anemic, the effects from the benadryl were more pronounced.

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I took either 300 mg or 400 mg of Gabapentin before bedtime. It didn’t stop working; after awhile (about a year or so) I just stopped having hot flashes.

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how old were you at the time? had you experienced hot flashes before then? what led you to try gabapentin as opposed to some of the other treatments?

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I don’t have a lot of advice but definitely relate to hot flashes interrupting sleep and leading to higher blood sugars. I’ve tried acupressure, which might be helpful. There are some websites with directions so it’s worth a try. Acupuncture has been recommended by others, but I haven’t tried it yet. Some cities have lower cost community based acupuncture, which might be an option. Eating late seems to make things worse, but it is sometimes hard to avoid. Ice water on the night stand is helpful. So far black cohosh and vitex herbs have not helped me personally, but if tolerated, they help some women.