I have been a type 1 diabetic for 23 years and I was wondering if anyone else out there knows anything about, or has experience with increased creativity, or even more lucid dreams while having higher sugars. I am a visual artist and I find that my most “inspired” work or dreams comes around when my sugars a higher than normal. For the most part I am a controlled diabetic and I have never purposely ran a high sugar to test my theory, but I was just wondering if anyone had ever seen any kind of study done between glucose levels and the right verses left sides of the brain.
I had a Type 2 professor in college who taught music composition and told me that he purposely let his numbers run a little high when composing because he experienced that very same thing.
I find I’m more uninhibited when low, so that sometimes sparks my creativity.
I was Dxed in November and prior to that I was having crazy vivid dreams. My fasting sugar was 300 and when I actually did my first finger prick I was over 400. Now that my BG is under control I have been sleeping great and the “almost” prophetic like dreams I was having are now gone. Would be interesting to see any studies on this.
I have type 1… I notice my dreams become very strange, and weird when I get have a low BS at night, that is what usually wakes me us. I don’t feel like I am more creative when my bs is high, but I think I’ll have to test it out. I am in Creative Director in Advertising and working to be creative all day.
Actually I’ve had some pretty crazy, vivid dreams while having low blood sugars. One dream involved partially understanding the intricacies of God and how he manages an infinately complex universe… I know it sounds a little far fetched… but I woke up feeling like I understood God a lot better (after I treated my 40 blood sugar). Lows while sleeping can be funny things.
Rose,
Thanks for raising a fascinating question. Would love to know if there are any studies on this.
Before being diagnosed I had fascinating & vivid dreams. Some were so intense, that they’d wake me up & I could see the dream images projected on the walls & ceiling for a couple of minutes. How odd is that! My husband never believed me & said I was still sleeping. Nope, definitely awake. Wonder how high my BG was when this happened. Miss these experiences. My dreams are mundane now.
When I’ve gone low my dreams aren’t particularly strange.
Thanks to everyone who replied to this topic. It’s nice to know that I am not the only one experiencing different levels of creativity when my numbers are off. I asked my endo a few appointments ago and he said he was unaware of any known study about this, but after hearing all of your input I am sure there is some kind of connection; guess it just favors a different side of the brain for some people. I always dream about food when having low sugars (no surprise there) and then wake up to go treat my low sugar… wishing I could treat it with the French fries or pancakes I had just been dreaming about.
Thanks again for your feedback!
I haven’t noticed anything about highs affecting my dreams. (But then I’m almost never high…I’m terrified of high blood sugars and rarely allow my sugars over 130.) But I have to second all of the low sugars causing weird dreams. Many’s the time I’ve woken up with low blood sugars to my alarm going off and a certainty that the alarms clock was a UFO or a bomb (usually something unpleasant, because I hate mornings). And I often have insights when I’m low, and I think, “Wow, that is SO brilliants.” I think it’s probably like a stoner who figures their insights are brilliant while high.
yes! when my sugars are high at night, my dreams are very vivid and creative! and i remember them, too…most of the time my dreams tend to be scarier the higher my sugar is…
myriah
That sounds really interesting. I can’t say that I’ve ever noticed this or experienced that, but I’m currently reading a book called Musicophilia about medical conditions and music.
When I get home tonight, I’ll look through the book and see if it mentions anything about blood sugars. I’ll get back to you!
I used to get the strange, vivid dreams when my sugars went too low at night and sometimes into the dawn also. I described to my Hubby, some of the really scary movie scenes that I could have written.
I’ve never noticed high blood sugars causing more vivid or different dreams, other than a more pronounced need, during the dream to get up and relieve myself. Dreams when I’m low are a completely different story – very vivid, almost like being in an infinite loop in a computer program or trapped in a maze that I can never find my way out of. Often, they are frightening, particularly because sometimes, I dream that I have awakened, and I have not, so I’m never sure what is going on.
Jonathan, I’ve woken up low, tested, fallen asleep again, but dreamed I got up and treated the low! Now that freaks me out. I’ll awake again and look for evidence that I ate something and realize, no, I probably didn’t eat that chocolate rainbow I dreamed about…
I looked and there was nothing in the book, but it would be a really interesting psychology/physiology study.
How about having the dream include dreaming about treating the low (and thinking how good that ice cream was) and thinking there was nothing that needed to be done? I did that once. Wasn’t sure when I was up and when I wasn’t.
I have the craziest dreams when my BS is low. Sometimes, I’ll dream an entire movie screenplay idea, but sometimes -more terrifyingly- the dream images will start to race faster and faster (maybe because my heart beat is increasing because of the low?) until my dream is stuck in a permanent fast forward state that is really hard to turn off. It’s like I’m watching an assembly line on hyper speed, but I can’t look away. As if my brain was on overdrive…probably my subconscious trying to wake me up. Quite terrifying.
Interesting. There is another current thread about a similar topic, “Diabetes Dreams”. I reported there that I have consistently vivid dreams many times, much more so if I am LOW. Not particularly vivid when High, just want to sleep MORE.
Some of my more dreams, even when in range,are quite vivid. If I remember them well and write them down, I can usually associate the details/themes with events/situations in my life. I have read many dream/psychology articles, and I think that we are" hardwired" to have that type of intuition to give us answers, or at least a review of our own viewpoint of possibilities, in our sleep.
God Bless,
Brunetta.
I think the “dreams” are better called “hallucinations”?
For me the adrenaline rush related to a mild hypo and resulting manic-psycho-ness has always been a spur to unusual thoughts and occasionally even creativity.
I remember a science fiction author (Niven?) proposing that government security agencies should hire paranoid schizophrenics, take them off their meds, and let them brainstorm up the threats that more normal people couldn’t see.
Odd this question was here today. I had a 226 last night (3 am) and when my CGM alerted me, I had been having dreams that were extremely intricate. Never thought about the correlation of the two.