Experts have warned that a common night-time problem could mean you are at risk of a serious health condition. Experiencing disrupted sleep could be a warning sign of diabetes.

Diabetes is a condition that causes your blood sugar level to become too high. If left untreated it can result in some potentially life-threatening complications such as organ damage, nerve damage, and infections.

In the UK, an estimated 5.6 million people are living with the condition, but more may not realise they have it. To diagnose the condition, a test is needed to measure your blood sugar levels.

This is necessary if you start to experience some of the symptoms of diabetes. Some of these are more well-known than others.

Feeling very thirsty, urinating more often than usual, and fatigue are all warning signs. But some of the symptoms are less well known.

According to experts at Diabetes UK, diabetes could have a serious impact on your sleep. Changes in blood sugar levels could “disrupt” your sleep while associated symptoms could cause pain that keeps you up at night.

On its website, the charity explained: “Getting enough quality sleep is important for good health and wellbeing, but sleep problems can be common for people living with diabetes, and getting a good night’s rest can be easier said than done. Changes in your blood sugar levels can play their part in disrupting sleep, and diabetes complications such as neuropathy (nerve damage) and foot pain can also make it hard to sleep.”

Having both low or high blood sugar can lead to issued with sleep. The charity continued: “Low blood sugar, known as hypos (short for hypoglycaemia) in the night can affect people living with type 1 diabetes and can lead to reduced sleep quality. People living with other types of diabetes who take insulin or other glucose-lowering medication may also experience high and low blood sugar levels during the night.”

The experts added that experiencing low blood sugar overnight can result in daytime sleepiness the next day. And regularly having hypoglycaemia can lead to “irregular sleep patterns”.

High blood sugar can also keep you awake at night. Diabetes UK said: “When blood sugar levels are high, it can increase the number of times you go to the toilet, which can interrupt your sleep. High blood sugar levels can also cause symptoms such as feeling thirstier and having a headache and might make it harder to get straight back to sleep.”

On top of this, research has shown that insomnia could increase your risk of developing type 2 diabetes. A study published in Diabetes Care journal in 2022 found that people who have difficulty getting to sleep or staying asleep had higher blood sugar levels than people who rarely had sleep issues.

James Liu, senior research associate at the Bristol Medical School and corresponding author on the paper, said: “We estimated that an effective insomnia treatment could result in more glucose lowering than an equivalent intervention, which reduces body weight by 14kg in a person of average height.  This means around 27,300 UK adults, aged between 40 and 70 years old, with frequent insomnia symptoms would be free from having diabetes if their insomnia was treated.”

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To improve your sleep quality, Diabetes UK recommends you:

• Try to be more active during the day
• Try to sleep on a comfortable mattress with comfortable pillows and covers
• Try to relax for at least an hour before you go to bed
• Try to avoid alcohol before bed as this can disrupt your circadian rhythm (your sleep-wake pattern over a 24- hour period) and directly interfere with your sleep cycle
• Turn off artificial lights and screens, such as television and smartphones, as these can offset your sleep cycle and confuse the body when you are about to go to sleep
• Turn down the heating or use a fan to circulate air, which may help improve your sleep quality
• Set time limits on your social media use before bed

Other symptoms of diabetes to be aware of include:

• Feeling very tired
• Urinating more than usual
• Feeling thirsty all the time
• Losing weight without trying to
• Blurred vision
• Cuts or wounds taking longer to heal
• Itching around your penis or vagina, or you keep getting thrush.

If you are experiencing symptoms of diabetes you should speak to your doctor.