Improving Sleep Quality

Regardless of how many hours you sleep, your glucose levels fluctuate. As a part of the natural circadian rhythm cycle, sleep is an essential part of life. During sleep, our blood sugar levels increase. Fluctuation of blood sugar levels during sleep is a natural phenomenon and should not be a concern for normal people. But for a person with uncontrolled blood glucose levels, it might be a cause for concern. 

Sleep plays an important role in regularising blood glucose levels. Our sleep hours have drastically changed and have become irregular compared to the olden days. For some, sleep has been greatly decreased due to stress and anxiety. This is a triggering factor for raised glucose levels in the body. Also know about yoga asanas for diabetes with pictures.

With exercise, our body tends to utilise the excess blood glucose, whereas, with no exercise, the body just keeps piling up the extra glucose. This unutilised glucose shows up as raised blood glucose, which in turn harms the body. Therefore, during sleep, glucose tends to remain unutilised for a long time, reflected in raised glucose levels. A few steps to improve your metabolic health will help you control your glucose levels.

1. Variable Glucose Intake

Lowering glucose throughout the day can give you great benefits. It helps you manage sleep quality and energy levels. Taking an increased amount of glucose during the day will help utilise the glucose in some or the other way. But if you are taking large amounts of glucose just before your sleep and utilising it appropriately, then during the sleep, your glucose levels can increase drastically. In this way, you can have a good sleep without getting affected by increased glucose levels.

2. It's all in your Diet

In order to obtain more stable glucose levels, it is essential to work on a diet which offers essential fibre and not excess carbohydrates, which may shoot glucose levels. Ensure post 6 pm you are cutting down carbohydrates from your diet schedule.

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3. Post-meal Exercise

Glucose is only utilised when your metabolism utilises it. Utilise glucose efficiently by exercising post-meal. Every meal should not be finished with a piece of the dessert but rather with a walk or a stroll. A short walk after meals will help regularise glucose levels and lower blood glucose levels even during sleep. A good amount of exercise post meals will benefit during sleep. 

4. Maintaining Sleep Cycle

Severely short sleep cycles, i.e. sleep less than 5 hours per night, have been linked with developing high glucose levels in the body. Sleep deprivation also significantly affects the increased risk of type 2 diabetes. This proper maintaining a proper sleep cycle is essential for improved metabolic health. Poor quality sleep and blood glucose levels have a definitive correlation.

5. Manage Stress

High levels of stress can trigger raised blood glucose levels. Anxiety and stress during sleep and not being able to sleep properly will affect glucose levels inefficiently. Meditation and yoga are a few ways by which good sleep can be initiated. A few minutes of relaxation techniques will help lower stress levels to a great extent. 

Sleep-Wake Misalignment & its Effect on Glucose Metabolism

A majority of studies have related sleep quantity and quality with blood glucose levels. Our metabolic health is largely dependent on our sleep cycles. The circadian rhythms, chronotype, and sleep-wake time affect the development, onset and management of diabetes. Extreme patterns of the sleep-wake cycle challenge our internal organs and lead to metabolic alterations. 

Studies conducted examining the effects of sleep and disruption of the circadian cycle on glucose metabolism showed a whopping 32% reduction in blood glucose levels post meals It is a well-established fact that exercise plays a crucial role in preventing diabetes and its onset. The impact of disturbed sleep circadian rhythm negatively affects glucose levels, and therefore it becomes essential that a sound sleep with CGM would be more beneficial. Sleep loss results in decreased metabolic rate, then more energy expenditure will be required for homeostasis. 

Post-meal exercise, a well-planned diet before sleep, managing stress levels and a well-managed sleep cycle are some key factors to continuously monitoring blood glucose levels. A sleep-deprived state demands more energy expenditure as the body will have to put more effort into utilising glucose which stresses metabolic health. Furthermore, many days of sleep deprivation and irregular sleep cycles result in decreased insulin sensitivity. 

Bottomline

Only reducing blood glucose levels is not the answer to an effective blood glucose control program during sleep. It is equally important to regularise and optimise glucose in the body to improve sleep quality with Continuous Glucose Monitoring. Small changes in the lifestyle can be most beneficial in monitoring blood glucose levels.