Nighttime hypo?

(Rob Grantham) #21

maybe try adding back some more carbs? Some people just arent meant to go to low. Im starting to wonder if im one of them too. Ive noticed a trend with this woe. Dont get me wrong for a while i feel fantastic then about a few months in i start feling crappy as hell.

(Edith) #22

It could be you are not drinking enough water. I started getting heart palpitations. A few times they were so bad, I went to the ER. At my last ER visit, the doctor who examined me also followed a ketogenic diet. He told me I need to be drinking about 3 liters of fluid a day on keto. As a result, I upped my fluid intake and the major palpitation attacks (as I refer to them) stopped.

Now, if I start to feel palpitations, I know I have been slacking on the water. Or salt, actually. If I don’t get my 2 teaspoons a day plus incidental from food, I will also get palpitations.

One night I woke up with my heart pounding and I was hungry. I drank a big glass of water with 1/2 teaspoon salt and the pounding went away in minutes. So did the hunger. I realized I hadn’t had enough salt during the day:

(Erica) #23

You may want to get your thyroid tested, at least it wouldn’t hurt to test it. I have had what sounds very similar and it was mild hyperthyroidism. HYPERthyroidism can give you a fast heart rate, dizziness, and for me would make me feel weak and jittery. So, just something to check.

I also agree with those who say to make sure you are drinking enough water!

#24

If you find it happening just as you start to fall asleep or just after falling asleep then it could very well be an anxiety attack – for whatever the reason.

I have had sudden numbness and heaviness and sometimes tingling in my lower legs along with a profound sense of dread as if something really bad was happening to me. And my heart rate was somewhat elevated and pounding. Upon being full awake, however, all of the symptoms subsided and disappeared within a minute. Do some research on anxiety attacks and the symptoms. Many correspond to what you describe.

I also have mild idiopathic neuropathy that can be aggravated by anxiety. Just last night I had that dread feeling and my legs went kinda numb and it immediately woke me up; knowingly I bounced out of bed and onto my feet and they were just fine. I suspect it might have been an electrolyte imbalance and my extended fast dehydrating me.

Falling asleep, and that nether land in between, can be a tricky realm.

(Rob Grantham) #25

Heres my theory about whats happening. I was eating every 3/4 hours previously with smaller meals around 20-30g protein and 30-40g fat with around 8g carbs. I was generally feeling good. I started to move my meals further apart (every 5/6 hours) and introduced Intermittant fasting at the same time Eating in a window of 8 hours.

Now for whatever reason my body has thrown a hissy fit. It probably thinks im trying to starve it. My blod sugars are all over the place due to what i think is some kind of stress response. I feel ill.

Im not sure what to eat to try to make this situation better. I just want to feel normal again.

(Rob Grantham) #26

If blood sugar drops too low then cortisol kicks in to raise it back up again right? So if you are fasted too quickly too soon this would take place?

My blood sugar last night was up at 133 and that was 5 hours after eating. Im reasoning that because id been spacing out too long between meals that my body started releasing cortisol in order to bring back blood sugars to a normal level.

It just felt awful in the night. Today im going back to eating every few hours keto style and next time i think about fasting i will graduate very slowly.

No doubt this rise in blood glucose means im going back to square one in terms of adaptation. Ive eaten some brocolli today (half plate) with butter and salt. Im starting to feel better again.

Ahhh this is like walking a tightrope for me. I think I have to be very careful when transitioning to fasting or reducing times between eating. Again too much too fast. Thank you all for your help

(bulkbiker) #27

So far as I am aware its the liver that releases more glucose into the blood to either get you up in the morning or if your blood sugars go too low. I may however be wrong about that.
If you do have RH then fasting is usually seen as helping along with ultra low carb to not trigger the insulin rise so as not to get the crash. What kind of things are you eating before your episodes?

(Bunny) #28

“… There are many misconceptions about fasting. It is useful to review the physiology of what happens to our body when we eat nothing. …” - Dr. Jason Fung

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1DD3056D-EE38-4E89-B7CF-46286485D157.jpeg536×529 59.4 KB

The transition from the fed state to the fasted state occurs in several stages. 5 stages (image above) Fasting Physiology – Part II

(Brian) #29

I don’t know if this has any similarity or not but thought maybe I’d share it, just in case it’s even only a little relevant.

I have noticed a few times, waking up at around 1:00am or 2:00am, maybe 4 hours after going to bed and maybe six to eight hours after eating, with an elevated heart rate and usually feeling very warm. Although I don’t usually feel like I HAVE to get up, I usually do, go pee, maybe get a small drink of water. And I’ll go back to bed. The heart rate will generally slow a little after going back to bed and I’ll drift back to sleep with all seeming to be completely normal again upon waking in the morning.

The thing I’ve noted about when that happens is usually having a large serving of beef for supper, probably several hamburger patties or an extra large helping of meatloaf.

Related? I don’t know. But it’s something I’ve seen before and it doesn’t scare me. Could that be related to the “meat sweats” that some people talk about? It’s interesting that the reaction is somewhat delayed but maybe there is something about a particular part of the digestion process that would be happening at that point. (?)

Anyway, just sharing.

(Edith) #30

I was going through something similar: I would wake up every morning at 3:30 a.m. Sometimes I would be hungry, most times feeling very stressed, like I had an adrenaline surge. I would not be able to fall back to sleep.

I started eating more. That has helped greatly. I am back to sleeping through the night. If I do wake up to urinate, for example, there is no panic, and I am able to fall back to sleep easily.

I think my body was stressed from not enough food and nutrients.