Can a bad dream increase BG?

Type 1 and LADA
1

Just curious if anyone has ever noticed an elevation in BG after a "bad" dream? Some Type 1s, me for one, are prone to bad dreams. Last night, by chance, I awoke at 3:15 am and noticed my cgm was 121. That was fine for me. Back to sleep and awoke at 4:30 am in a bad dream. cgm was 139. Now, I know that is also prime time for the dawn phenomena but am now wondering if a dream that is stressful, and perhaps elevates your heart rate, could also impact BG. Or is that crazy thinking? I don't think the actual dream matters but I was (cutting lots of detail) running around a train station parking lot trying to find my car that someone else had parked because I had gotten on the train and found I left my ticket in the car. The train was going further and turning around to come back to the station and I had minutes to find my car and ticket. I was in a panic because I could not find it and the train was returning in minutes. Oh, and I was to give a talk at the destination. I awoke at that point.

I have had some much worse dreams than that but never tested my bg afterwords. My meter is often higher than the cgm so the meter was 169 when the cgm was 139 after the dream. don't know the before meter reading.

Stress does tend to increase my BG, Anyone else ever think about this?

2

Nightmares cause stress, and stress can cause insulin resistance and higher bg... so makes sense to me.

3

I agree, Fraser; I think nightmares are more likely to be caused by high blood sugar as well as low blood sugar (more common in my experience) rather than the high blood sugar causing the nightmares.

4

I have bad, stressful, weird, dreams when I’m low for sure. I’m never high at night so can’t comment on that from personal experience.

5

Oops...I meant to say, "rather than the high blood sugar being caused by the nightmares!"

6

Yes, I do think that high BG can cause nightmares--from past years when I did not have a cgm. But the BGs were really high, not in the mid 150s.

Don't recall one with a low bg.

Thanks,

7

For me it works the other way. If I wake up from a really bad dream it usually means my BG is low. I'm not sure which comes first the bad dream or the low BG.

8

the low BG is new to me. I had an endo about 20 years ago who told me about the nightmares with high BGs, after telling her about mine. I have not seen it written about but guess I haven't looked. I would like to know the physiology on abnormal BG (hi or lo) causing such dreams. Weird. Well, perhaps it is one way our body gets us to wake up and check our bg!

9

Interesting way to find out! My bg was 325 so very close; I knew I was Diabetic though so I asked for a blood test.

10

Like others, I have them when I have lows. Of course, I call them anxiety dreams, not nightmares. For me, there is always a sequence that just keeps getting stranger and stranger and requiring me to make some sort of decision, with some event or person always getting in the way until I wake up.