Resolving to Sleep.

I woke up low on New Year’s Day.

That was largely thanks to overcorrecting before bed, then waking up to a low alarm and eating two glucose tabs, and then suspending my pump on the second low alarm a bit later because I really didn’t want to eat any more glucose tabs.

Not to mention that I only suspended for 30 minutes, telling myself that I’d do a wait-and-see, except that I was well and truly asleep again by the time that 30 minutes was up.

The 4am diabetes brain wants what it wants…

When I looked at my CGM graph the following morning, I must have spent several hours hovering in the 3s.

I spent the remainder of my New Year’s Day paying for it. My brain was foggy, my body felt heavier than usual and my muscles were sore. All thanks to my body being deprived of it’s much needed glucose reserves throughout the night.

Which brings me to my New Year’s resolution.

I really, really, really want to focus on sleeping better this year.

It’s not like I have any trouble sleeping. Or that I’m not getting enough. But when I think about those days where I wake up relatively easily, alert and feeling truly refreshed – it’s hard to think about when the last one was.

When I think about how I feel about living with diabetes of late, I’m really happy with all of the gradual changes I’ve made in my life to support it. I’m really happy with what I’m doing to manage it, and where I’m at.

Yet my sleep would have to be the thing that’s been weighing me down the most. It impairs me physically, it impairs my mood and it impairs on my productivity. It doesn’t make me feel as though I’m managing my diabetes very well at all.

So, there’s one more gradual change that I hope to implement this year.

I’m really making a concentrated effort to switch off in that last hour before I go to bed, reminding myself that whatever I’m doing will still be there to resume tomorrow.

I’ve started turning down the lights at 9pm and closing the blinds. Switching off the WiFi on my devices. Lightly reading, writing or watching the news. I guess you could say that it’s an hour of ‘me time.’

I’ve started using the Sleep Cycle app once again, which tracks my sleep and wakes me up at a time where I’m sleeping lightest.

It’s still really early, but going to bed without a brain that’s still on and buzzing really is making a huge difference when I wake up in the morning.

I’m hoping that this is the difference that will get me off into the New Year on the right foot.

Happy New Year. Make it a good one, friends.