5 Ways To Get Better Sleep for Better Blood Sugar Control

Yes, sleep affects your blood sugar, which in turn affects your diabetes. Sleep is one of the most important things that we do in our lives. We can't survive without it. Today, I'm talking about sleep's impact on diabetes.

So what are some of the problems?

First of all, the first thing is inconsistent sleep. And by that, I mean, waking up multiple times during the night, maybe getting up and eating in the middle of the night, not getting enough sleep and getting irregular sleep. Now, the problems with these things are that they lead to glucose intolerance or blood sugar intolerance, meaning, that you become insulin resistant. And that is a step or two before diabetes. And if you already have diabetes, you're already a little insulin resistant.

Second. When you don't get enough sleep, you get up in the morning and are probably pretty irritable. Your executive function has been affected by not getting enough sleep. And what happens then, is you tend not to choose good, healthy breakfasts that have some protein in them. So you end up with sugar and caffeine and what happens? Wow, you feel great. You're ready to go. And you have this big high and your blood sugar goes way up and then, boom, it crashes. And then you feel irritable, moody bad. And then, so what do you do? You turn to sugar and caffeine again. Now this up and down is really bad for glucose control.

Third - we have two main hormones that regulate our appetite. One is called ghrelin and it tells us you're hungry, you need to eat. The other one is called leptin. And it says, okay, you've had enough, you're satisfied, stop eating, you don't need any more food. So, these hormones work in balance with each other. During the night when you're sleeping, ghrelin is low. Right? Because you're not really supposed to eat at night. Your body doesn't expect that. And leptin is high. So, you don't even feel hungry.

But when you have poor sleep, that's kind of reversed. The leptin doesn't have a chance to really rise. So your appetite isn't suppressed, but ghrelin goes up and you're hungry. So, you tend to overeat. And this is what happens. This is how you gain weight when you don't sleep very well.

So what can you do? The very first thing I strongly encourage you to do is have a regular sleep routine. Go to bed at the same time every night, get up at the same time every day. Our bodies love routine. And the more that you can be consistent with that, the better off you're going to be.

Second, if you have electronics in your bedroom; computer, printer, TV, whatever, either take them out if you can, or if you can't, cover them. They give off a lot of light during the night. Yep. Those little tiny lights, add up. Keep your room dark and cool. And that's another reason to cover the electronics.

Three - We have other hormones involved, cortisol and melatonin. Melatonin rises at night and helps us sleep. But when we see light that goes directly into our brain and says, hey, it must be time to wake up. And so we wake up, even though we're not rested, we're not finished sleeping.

Fourth. Eat dinner at least two to three hours before you go to bed. Going to bed on a full stomach can be miserable. And it really messes up all the work your body needs to do during the night. Right? So your body, isn't just inert, just laying there, sleeping away. No. You're asleep, but your body is working. And if it has to deal with digesting food, then it doesn't get all of its other critical work done during the night.

Number 5, make sure that you're getting enough sleep. Many of us pride ourselves on getting so little sleep and we think, yep, we're functioning. Everything is good, but it isn't true. We really need somewhere between seven and nine hours of sleep. So seven and a half, maybe eight hours. I know it sounds like a lot.

You might be saying, I'm not sleepy, I need to socialize, I need to do work, I need to do whatever.

But I guarantee you that if you can get seven and a half, eight hours of sleep every night for like a month, you will feel like a new person. And, you'll really be helping your body maintain a good blood sugar control.

I have a free 30 day guide that I'd love for you to download. It's called managing or reversing your type two diabetes. It has some information in there about different steps you can take. Click here to download it.

Thank you so much for listening.

Dr. Elaine

Download my free 30 Day Guide to Manage or Reverse Type 2 Diabetes

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This information is for educational purposes only and is not intended to replace the medical advice of your doctor or healthcare provider. Please consult your healthcare provider for advice about a specific medical condition.

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