Does anybody out there have issues with night sweats?
Is there any relation to long lasting or fast acting insulin?
When I wake up, and test my blood sugar it sometimes is 60 or 190. Any idea ?
Hi Arben,
Usually when I wake up sweating heavily at night, my blood sugar is really low. I usually keep my glucomoter. beside my bed so I can test as soon as i can think well enough to do it. This has only happened two times for rme. But I have also awakened one time sweating and very thirsty and my blood sugar was high. The one time when I wakened with a high blood sugar was when we didn’t have my Lantus at a high enough dose level The times I have awakened with a low blood sugar was when I shot a little too much Humalog before going to bed. Now i watch my bedtime doses more carefully and my bedtime snacks better also. I hope this helps
So how much insulin do you take at night? is it long lasting or fast acting ?
I use around 21 to 24 units of a long acting Lantus. This starts out very slow. My body usually cycles a long slow rise in blood sugar for me, peaking from around 2 am till about 5 or 6 am. It will still be up by the time I usually get up around 8 am. if I haven’t taken any Lantus. If I shoot any fast acting Humalog at night, it is because my nighttime reading before going to bed is over 110 or 120. I like to keep my readings down to around 100 or lower during the day I shoot the Humalog in the morning after breakfast along with my daytime shot of Lantus which is about 18 units. Then I shoot the Humalog after each meal, so that makes it twice more during the day. The morning shot of Lantus will give me a long low coverage for all day long peaking in the afternoon. This schedule seems to follow the way my body handles things very well. My last A1C was 5.6
What kind of insulin are you using?
I also get night sweats when I am low. I am on the pump-- so I don’t use long-lasting insulin. I’m not sure whether that could cause anything, but I know that being low also causes the same thing for me!
Novolog - 70/30 and 100
Currently I take 15 units of 70/30 in the morning, and then fast acting in the evening for dinner. But none through the night since I had lows in the 35 and since then I am kind of scared to use long lasting at night.
But I just read that not taking the insulin will have major after effects, true ?
I saw your number is 7.6 - why are you using the pump? I was thinking of using it in the beginning but then kind of forgot because I got used to my pen.
Do you have the name of your pump system, also is the transition hard? or easy?
Hi Arben,
The only time i wake up with sweats whether from a nap or at night is when i have a really really low bg. Usually if I have a low with sweats it is as low as 30 or lower. Then i am totally drenched in sweat and am really shaky. I had one last friday that was so low my meter only said “lo” , we haven’t figured out yet why I get so low esp while sleeping since technically I am not doing anything while sleeping to use up the insulin. I do have chronic pain in my right arm from the shoulder to the wrist that gives me alot of trouble when i try to sleep. So right now the dr. is looking at either the pain or the pain meds being the cause but since i am a new diabetic, just diagnosed january 12th, 2008 we are still trying to get some control over my bg. i have never had the sweatsor shakes with my bg being high or normal though.
Hi Karen, same issue with me - drenched in sweat. Let me know what it result in / I will keep you up to date too.
Wow! I’m not sure about me… I wake up totally drenched in the mornings sometimes. But I can tell that I was actually sweating way before I wake up. I go to bed with a decent number like 125 and wakeup with a 160 or higher. There have been times when I’ve awakened in the night to see a number of 112 and totally drenched. Then wake up 3 hours later with a 160.
I’ve read alot about the Dawn thing; but I cant seem to get my Dr to realize it. ( I’m not allowed to test more than 4 times a day/ extra strips on me.)
I hope to one day see an Endo.
I’m currently doing Humalog on a sliding scale before meals only.
MeadowLark
I agree with using a pump - I have been on one for 5 years and it’s WONDERFUL! I was waking up with lows due to Lente injections take at 6 pm and they were getting as low as 20 - I was stuttering, sweating, you name it - I haven’t had one since I got on the pump -
My pump malfunctioned last Friday and my blood sugar was 500 - I am now on Lantus and Humalog while waiting for the new pump to arrive. I don’t like Lantus at all and can’t wait to get my pump back. The long acting insulins are hard to figure and night lows are common. I too am very active and the pump is awesome for that. This time I am getting a minimed - will let you know how it is!
I used to have those night sweats and they were in direct relation to low blood sugars. I try to have something to eat before I go to bed now without insulin. I wouldn’t recommend taking fast acting right before bed. Try having like 15g of carbs with no fast acting insulin right before bed. If you continually have lows you might need to adjust your Lantus. Lantus is something that you need to adjust on your own (in my opinion) depending on how your body responds to it. For instance my doctor recommended I take 24 units of Lantus but I was having way too many lows so I adjusted by myself to 21. Pumps aren’t always the right solution for everyone so before you take the financial plunge make sure it is right for you. It seems to me that most pumpers are more happy about the fact that they take less shots instead of control happiness. If you you are looking for a technilogical approach maybe a continuous glucose monitor (with an alarm when you start going low) is the right tool for you. Anyways talk to your doctor about your night sweats and I am sure one you get good control they will go away like mine did.
I too have night (and occasionly day if I am too involved with what I am doing to notice the early signs of low blood sugar) when my blood sugar is low - 40 or below - not so much now because I have used a pump for the past 10 years. If you have a low and don’t treat it your body will release glycogen to bring it up - combine that with the dawn effect & your bs could actually be high awhile after you had a low.
The pump does do more than eliminate shots (though that is definitly a plus) - you can vary your basil amount so that you can match your body’s needs better than a long acting insulin can do (though I haven’t used any of the new ‘designer’ long acting insulins - I actually started on the pump before humalog was released & had to convince my endo to give me a prescription for it before it was offically ‘approved’ for pump use. You can also turn off or lower your basil temporarily if you are having continual lows - rather than waiting until a long acting insulin is out of your system. I think my pump was a live saver when I was traveling in Europe with my 20 year old daughter last summer - I was doing so much more walking & stair climbing than usual that I was continually fighting lows until I figured how low I had to cut my basil (almost in half) & lower my insulin to carb ratio. At least with the pump I could make adjustments thoughout the day.
For me sweating at night is a sign of a pretty low BG, like 40-60 range. It takes me awhile to realize my BG is low, then I fianlly get up and feel like I can eat everything in the whole fridge. Usally this means I either did a lot of exercise during the day or my basal insulin needs a permenant change.
I get night sweats when I am low. Will wake up in a cold sweat.
It helps if your evening snack has some protein or fat in it to slow the absorption of the carbs . I personally have a small package of peanut butter crackers you would buy for your kids lunch, they range in the amount of carbs so look around. These have been working great for me so far.
Like others have said, I used to get night sweats as a result of nocturnal hypoglycemic episodes (was on NPH insulin, then Ultralente). I haven’t had that experience since switching to a pump. If you aren’t on a pump, you might consider either lowering your evening dosage or long acting insulin, or have a snack before going to bed, and making sure your bgl’s are up around 120 or 130 before going to sleep. Maybe even have a weekend where you test yourself at 2 hour intervals throughout the night to see when the low is happening, and how much of a low it is so that you can adjust accordingly.
When I was on injections using NPH as long acting I had numerous episodes of waking up soaked, always due to lows. NPH is the devil! Since pumping I have had very few overnight lows and no more roller coaster rides. 
Arben,
I have also had night sweats when I go low at night; for me this occured about 3-4 am… After getting my basal dose corrected though, I have not had this problem. You don’t take fast acting insulin with all your meals? I’m curious why not? I’m still new and learning myself and just assumed all T1’s taking shots needed the bolus with meals. It would just seem to me if you did take a fast acting with your meals that you might need a lower dose of the long acting basal insulin…You should discuss the night sweats with your doctor and he/she can help you figure this out and make adjustments…My doctor told me along with night sweats, nightmares are also common with night time lows…
Someone posted this link; Getting Down to Basals in another discussion. The article was such a valuable resource as it helped me understand the effects of the basal (long acting) insulin and how to self adjust the dose.