The other morning I woke up after a particularly vivid dream, and it occurred to me that diabetes was nowhere a part of it. It was nothing special, but even though I have had diabetes for 15 years now, I have never once had it, or a pump, shot, carb count, BG reading or anything else to do with this abhorant disease enter into one of my dreams? I am never “cured” but I don’t have the disease either. Just like the good old days!
Am I the only one?
Good observation! I think I am the same, unless you count those dreams where you have to pee, which wakes you up, and then the BG tests through the roof! (No D involved in those dreams, just urgent “wake-up!” messages, same for low BGs.)
I wonder if this is common with other conditions as well? I wonder what it means?
I’d read a book about a Royal Air Force fighter pilot who had lost both his legs in a crash who claimed that even as an old man he never dreamt about having fake legs - even in dreams that were situated long after he’d lost them. I also heard that Christopher Reeve never was paralyzed in his dreams.
Interesting… I have never had my diabetes be apart of my dreams either. It would be a bum deal if I had to check my BG and do insulin in my Super Hero dreams…
In my dreams I can run, bike and swim for a long time. Sometimes, eventually, I stop and ask myself “what am I doing? I might go low!” but then I realize I’m dreaming and I choose whether to wake up or just keep fantasizing.
Maybe it’s because I was older when diagnosed- my self identity never involved diabetes? Anyone who was diagnosed young want to comment?
It makes me feel better to remember when I had the freedom of normality. (No offense to anyone, but I remember what life was like before. This ain’t my version of “normal” or “free”… but that might be just me.)
I had one dream where I was on a pump, but that was when I first got onto the pump. beyond that one dream I don’t dream of anything diabetic related.
Diabetes enters my dreams from time to time. A few nights ago I dreamnt that my pump went wacky and started plunging up tons of insulin from the reservoir and when I noticed what was happening I panicked and tore the site out. Pump dreams like that freak me out needless to say lol. Diabetes didn’t enter my dreams until a couple of years after diagnosis. I also seem to have more dreams about it since I started on the pump.
I fly in my dreams. I have for several years now and what is amazing is that it not really flying, rather the ability to elevate in the air, several hundred feet and walking. I can step quickly and of course no one can beleive how cool it is. What is interesting I suppose is that I always have my pump. Sometimes, I have to come to earth in order to test my BG in order to calibrate my pump. good news it is always in range and I never slowed down for long.
This is really not very new. Even before I was diabetic I had dreams with included insulin shots. A particular dream that I had for 10 -14 years was that i was a platoon leader in combat and I had to order an air strike. Unfortunately the air strike comes in wrong and ends up either hitting elements of my platoon or a nearby village. I always ended up in the field hospital where it was discovered I was diabetic. When I was 17 or 18, the dream changed slightly in that I was desperate to get insulin while in the field. I was diagnosed at age 17.
My mom was diabetic and my great fear was always that i would get diabetes, so the diabetes would be like a punishment.
See, I am way weird, but at least i know it. If anyone cares ot diagnose these crazy dreams, I am up for it. It is amazing that shortly after I was married the combat dream ended and the high stepping dream started shortly thereafter. About 10 years or so < ihad a run of the combat dream that lasted for about two weeks. Just as scary as ever.
rick philips
I dream about diabetes… I think my husband even dreams about diabetes… I know after I got my Dexcom he said he had a dream where HE was wearing one, and it just kept alarming non-stop!
The only time I dream about diabetes is when I am in water and realize that I still have my pump on and I try SO hard to keep it out of the water because MM pumps aren’t water proof. But no matter what I do, waves keep pouring over my pump. It’s pretty nerve wracking to say the least. Sometimes in dreams I will be aware that I have diabetes but for some reason I know that I don’t have to do anything about it. Just the horrible wet pump dreams…
Funny, for two years that I have diabetes, maybe I have only dreamed situations or conditions that I have diabetes, only about 2 to 3 times. Its not like that I dont dream…because I do. In my dreams, it does not even directly say that I have diabetes but more of Im exercising or working out in a gym. It makes sense because dreams are connected with our own “reality”. When interpreting dreams, it’s important to draw conclusions from our own personal life and experiences. Some researchers say that dreams are products of our own “wishful thinking” or fears. In my case…it might be both.
I must admit that I do dream of food sometimes. Just the other night it was a box of cream filled powdered sugar covered Krispy Kreme donuts–something I would never touch while awake. Anyone else?
ooh very interesting! I have been disbetic since I was 12 and I have never had to deal with anything related to my diabetes in my “dreams”
I put “dreams” in quotes because I have only ever had 1 dream… I have really awful nightmares every night, and sometimes I find that my blood sugar is correlated with the severity of the nightmare. Or maybe vice versa… the worse my nightmares are, the higher my bg is when i wake up (this could be to cortisol production during the stress of the nightmare?)
Anyway, does anyone else have this nightmare problem? I have seen many doctors about it but they don’t have anything to offer…
great topic 
and I never really realized it, but diabetes almost never plays a role in my dreams… the only time is when I’m more in that half state of waking/dreaming and usually cause I’m low …
I’ve also had diabetes since I was five…so for me I have no non-diabetes life to compare dreams to…so it must not just be related to how long you’ve had it…maybe more how much sub conscious space it occupies or how much time you spend thinking about it?
Then again …in many dreams I’m either not in any recognizable place outside a place I’ve seen before in a dream or I’m not even myself…at least as I am awake… like a different gender or age…
When I have a nightmare and wake up, almost always I am in the middle of a low BG. There have been a few times when I was in the middle of one of these nightmares when the thought occurred to me that I was having a low. That is as close as I have come to being ‘diabetic’ in one of my dreams. I think that it is when I am somewhere in between being asleep and being awake.
Diabetes is never a part of my dream, I’m always free of the pump and meter. Although when I’m going really low during the night, my dreams are really disjointed, paranoid and crazy. Fortunately, I still wake up when I’m low.
Curious observation.
I feel so different! Diabetes is in my dreams A LOT. I was only diagnosed 6 months ago…maybe it’s because of the newness that enters my subconscious?
My dreams are never about diabetes-symptoms or even food related. What I do dream about is (1) meeting people I already know and finding out that they too have diabetes, or (2) meeting an imaginary dream person who has diabetes… (they always have pumps, like I have)
I guess I really want some diabetic friends!
You know, now that I think about it, not long after the “Big D” arrived, I had a similar series of dreams that lasted a couple of months. At the time, I was in the Army. I used to dream I was back in Somalia (in the middle of a firefight) and I had to take a shot of insulin as the bullets were flying. The other guys in my platoon were all doing the same thing - one guy shooting bullets while his buddy was shooting insulin. I’ll probably have that dream tonight after recalling it 15 years later.