Let me start by making this very clear to everyone…I never had issues with insomnia until this year, when my sugar issues arose….I have always been a very deep sleeper and I’m the type of person who loves her sleep…But guess what the sleep that I love wasn’t happening…Not until I started a new experiment on my own….Now you might wonder what that is and I’m going to tell you all about it…
In March of this year I found out that I have problems with my blood sugar levels fluctuating both on the high and low side and you can’t really classify it per se…It’s not type 1 or 2 diabetes…My endocrinologist put me on this medicine called Glyset to slow down the way my digestive system processes food….I take it 30 minutes before a meal and it levels off my sugar so it doesn’t drop or get real high..It stays in the 100-120 level which is where it needs to be…
So that seems to be working great for me and now my blood sugar levels are really under control.
But… I was still having problems sleeping and I couldn’t figure out why…I was doing everything that I thought I should be doing…But that wasn’t enough…And when night came around I was still only getting 3-4 hours sleep.. So I started taking a look at what I was eating and thinking to myself “something is still setting me off”…
I have come to realize that my carb intake was the issue for me. Throughout the day I was eating high carb foods with my protein and that seems to be what my problem was. I noticed this when I changed what I was having for dinner to a high protein meal and cut out the carbs. After about a week of doing this I noticed that my sleeping patterns got a lot better. I have decided to cut a lot of the carbs out of my daily diet and now things are pretty much back to normal with the way I sleep. I hope this article may be helpful to anyone who may be having similar issues.
Sleep Well… 
Berrigirl
As I mentioned on Twitter I’m VERY carby right now. My dietitian reminded me that we crave carbs (breads, etc.) in the winter. Right now that is the phase I’m in. I know how to turn things around - by just going back to basics like in the beginning months post surgery. I bought some Natural Calm magnesium supplement and that’s helped a lot with my muscles relaxing. I was instructed to take so much calcium post surgery that I wonder if I’m experiencing some imbalance you know?
The website is here: http://www.petergillham.com/wp/2009/11/natural-calm/
Dietitian said it was OK, but wondering what your endocrinologist knows about magnesium deficiency..I might be asking to be referred to an endo in the near future. Thanks for telling your story dear one! <3
Hello,
You know one thing I found out is that Sugar issues can cause a person to have anxiety…I know if I eat high carbs, my sugar goes up and my body gets so tense…So I take Xanax to calm everything down…And I never had to before until this year..But it’s a learning process…
I’m always here for you…
Berrigirl
Hey Berrigirl (Heather):
I had problems with high glycemic index carbs — especially OATMEAL! Everyone kept singing the praises of oatmeal! Oatmeal in the morning! Oatmeal for snack! It really sticks to your ribs! It really satisfies! You’ll feel fuller longer.
BS.
What I learned is, not all oatmeal is created equal!
For starters, I am incredibly lazy (how else did I become morbidly obese to begin with?) and hate to wait. For anything. Like oatmeal.
So, I got me some instant oatmeal — the unsweetened stuff, I’m not stooopid — and started eating that for morning snack. I was so hungry I almost gnawed my arm off.
Then I started reading about it and realized that instant oatmeal is horrible for you, steel cut instant oats are only marginally better, but slow-cook steel cut oats are *the best* — having said that, they still are too high on the glycemic index chart for me. So, I have banished oatmeal from my regimen. That, and anything remotely resembling it. I think that sucks, but that is life.
So, it’s not just carbs, per se, it’s how they rate on the glycemic index that matters most.
Just a thought for ya — even though it sounds like you’ve already got it wired
Hey Cari,
Thank you for mentioning this…I wasn’t aware about Oatmeal being with High Glycemic Carbs…Maybe now readers will have something else to reference too…I’m really glad you said this…I love knowing what others have to say, cause if we put all of our information together we can maybe solve alot of mysteries…
Thank You,
Berrigirl