Su arma secreta para la diabetes: una buena noche de sueño

The latest National Sleep Foundation poll finds that most of us don’t get the amount of sleep needed for good daily health, safety and optimum performance in life. For those with Diabetes or prediabetes, lack of sleep is even more common—and more detrimental.

• La falta de sueño y los trastornos del sueño son especialmente frecuentes, con insomnio (dificultad para conciliar el sueño, permanecer dormido o dormir bien), apnea obstructiva del sueño (ronquidos fuertes o respiración interrumpida) y síndrome de piernas inquietas (sensaciones incómodas en las piernas y urgencia por moverlas) encabezando la lista.
• Poor sleep impacts every aspect of your ability to self-care effectively—like how you feel emotionally, what you eat or how much you exercise—which, in turn, affects your ability to sleep well.
• Frequent sleep disturbances and diabetes puts you at greater risk of dying earlier than for either condition alone.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “Too little sleep can increase insulin resistance, make you hungrier the next day and reduce how full you feel after eating, make you more likely to reach for junk foods (those that are high in carbs and sugar) make it harder to lose weight, raise blood pressure and seriously increase the risk of a heart attack, make your immune system less able to fight infections, [and] increase your risk of depression and anxiety.”

Dormir bien, entonces, es fundamental para un buen cuidado de la diabetes, y viceversa. Hablemos sobre cómo dormir bien por la noche de forma regular, para que pueda sentirse mejor y tener energía para afrontar la vida con diabetes.

¿Estás rastreando tu sueño?

Assessment of sleep pattern and duration is recommended by the American Diabetes Association since evidence connects poor sleep quality, short sleep and long sleep with higher A1Cs.  Yet, some experts warn that sleep evaluation in diabetes care is often under-recognized and under-performed by healthcare providers.

"El sueño es una herramienta para la diabetes muy subestimada, especialmente porque se puede cambiar casi de inmediato", dijo Adam Brown, autor de diabetes tipo 1 de "Bright Spots & Landmines: The Diabetes Guide I Wish Someone Had Handed Me". “Siempre puedo dormir más esta noche si lo convierto en una prioridad”.

Concéntrese en la cantidad Y la calidad del sueño.

How much sleep is enough? The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends at least 7 hours of sleep per night for Adultos, more if you’re younger. But how well you sleep matters, too. There are formal self-assessment tools, such as the SATED questionnaire that’s been used to measure different factors of poor sleep quality for people with diabetes. But anyone with diabetes can start by asking three simple questions about the quality of their own sleep:

1. ¿No me siento descansado (o alerta) incluso después de dormir suficientes horas?
2. ¿Me despierto repetidamente durante la noche?
3. ¿Tengo síntomas de trastornos del sueño, como ronquidos o falta de aire?

Popular consumer sleep technologies like wearable nighttime trackers may encourage better sleep awareness but are not yet approved for the medical diagnosis of sleep disorders.

Mire sus hábitos generales de estilo de vida.

A variety of practical daily do’s and don’ts should help anyone with nightly rest:

• Sea físicamente activo más temprano en el día.
• Evite las bebidas con cafeína por la tarde y la noche.
• Deja de mirar televisión o usar dispositivos electrónicos al menos 30 minutos antes de acostarte.
• Siga una rutina cómoda antes de acostarse, como un baño tibio o meditación, para reducir el estrés.
• Acuéstese a la misma hora todos los días.

With diabetes, it’s also important to prioritize your blood sugar control, as blood sugar that’s too high or too  low can wake you up at night. Here are a few tips:

• Check your blood sugar level before bed, correcting lows with a snack like a small apple, just enough to get back to your target.
• Adjust meal and medication timing with your provider to account for consistently lower-than-expected morning blood sugars or higher-than-expected morning blood sugars (commonly known as the dawn phenomenon, a result of the body producing hormones early in the morning to give it the energy it needs to wake up).
• Leverage technology where appropriate—talk to your doctor about trying a pump that releases insulin automatically while you sleep if your blood sugar gets too high. Or, use a continuous glucose monitor with alarms set to a high and low blood sugar level that you’re comfortable with to help wake you only if damage control is needed.
• Record how well you perceive you’re sleeping as a part of your daily data log, which should include your blood sugar levels and specific meal and exercise choices, and repeat what’s given you both the best blood sugar levels and best nights of sleep in the past.

If you’re still not catching quality Z’s, get with a diabetes care and education specialist or sleep specialist for added help.