Do different strong emotional states during the day correlate with higher blood sugar at night?

For those people wearing CGM’s- do you find that strong emotional states during the day (ie very stressed, nervous, sad, angry, etc) show up in your night time CGM readings?

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My 12-year-old boy’s stress level is reflected into his CGM curve, but it is mostly while he is directly affected by the stress. Although for a 12-year-old there may not be 24-hour stress like there might be in our lives.

I have not seen it occur yet - but I assume that, if he was anxious about, say, exams, for several days on a row, he would probably get night time stress as well.

I have an almost 14 year old, and the stress effect appears to be limited to the period where the stress is felt, i.e. when screaming at a brother, or when going back to school after a break. His numbers return to normal when the stress is lifted. Not sure, but there might be a correlation with increased variability around the stress, but we only have 6 months of data to test with , so I can’t say for a certainty that this is the case or not. With that said, our nighttime readings are currently greatly affected by growth hormones, so if there is an effect, it could be getting covered. Hopefully someone who is older can comment.

Extreme anger, frustration and nervousness definitely show up in my numbers. Any emotion or situation which causes an adrenaline release can be a culprit for me.

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Does it also show up at night during sleep?

@WestOfPecos, not really because I generally have calm uninterrupted sleep. I’m lucky that way!

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Definitely, i am a psychologist, and I´ve lived with type 1 diabetes for almost (next july) 32 years. There is a strong relationship between physical (pain) / emotional stress and bg readings. This is due to adrenaline, cortisol, epinephrine that our bodies naturally produce under these situations. In my case the efect can last for up to 12 hours, it was just till the use of CGM that I could understand the various things that affect my bg :frowning:

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Stress does do funny things. The most interesting question to me is when does stress end? For me, if the stress means an argument it usually ends when I calm down and get back to myself. Hang up the telephone from the insurance company I am back to normal an hour later. Have all my insulin freeze while in Michigan, my stress tends to end one hour after the replacements.

Now worried about my job r bills, I am 59 and I often to say that stress might occupy the majority of my life. So when does it end? That seems a more personal question. Sometimes my blood sugar returning to normal tells me my stress has ended.

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