Diabetes and sleep

Among surveyed adults with type 1 diabetes on multiple daily injections and CGM, 79% say something related to their diabetes interrupts their sleep occasionally or more often in a typical week. Among people with the highest overnight need, it’s 88%.¹

The two most common causes are ordinary and relentless: a low-glucose alarm and getting up to use the bathroom.

Measured on the PROMIS Sleep Disturbance Short Form, a standard eight-item instrument, roughly one in five people with diabetes report moderate or severe sleep disturbance. About one in four are already tracking their sleep with a wearable.²

Ask people what they most want their therapy to do, and the top three answers are all about the night: stopping lows overnight, sleeping without diabetes waking them, and waking up at the number they want.³

Most appointments center on A1c instead, the most common measure of control. It’s a 90-day average, so it can’t tell a steady night from one that swings between a low at three and a high at seven. Averaging removes exactly that difference.

So the thing people most want help with is also the thing the standard measure is least able to see.

This page reports what research found across a sample of adults with diabetes. It is not guidance about your own management. If your nights are being interrupted, bring that up at your next appointment. Your A1c won’t say it for you.