SHOW NOTES:

"Sleep hygiene" sounds like you're brushing your sleep's teeth. Nobody has ever said that phrase in a natural conversation. And this episode is not about a 12-step pre-sleep protocol that you'll implement on Monday and abandon by Wednesday when life gets in the way.

It's about one thing. Just one. Because T1D brains are very good at building complicated systems -- we've been doing it since diagnosis -- and when we hear "build a routine," we design a fourteen-point optimization plan that fails by Wednesday, raises our cortisol, and disrupts our blood sugar. One anchor behavior, repeated consistently, is how habits actually form. You already have a pre-sleep T1D routine. We're extending it by about thirty minutes, in one direction.

We're in Week 7 of the While You Were Sleeping Challenge.

In this episode:

• Why multi-step sleep protocols fail and what actually sticks long-term
• The three pre-sleep candidate behaviors that research supports for T1D people
• Why "the one that feels manageable" beats "the one that seems most impactful"
• How to use your existing T1D bedtime routine as an anchor for one new behavior
• What five nights of one habit actually tells you about whether it's working

This Week's Challenge: Pick one of the three pre-sleep behaviors from this episode. Commit to it for five nights. Write down what you notice.

Helpful resources and newsletter: https://yourbestt1dyear.com

Connect with Neil: TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@the.betes Instagram: https://instagram.com/thebetes Facebook: https://facebook.com/neilgreathouse LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/neil-greathouse-a607b912 Website: https://yourbestt1dyear.com

Books on Amazon: Type 1 Diabetes – One Day at a Time: https://a.co/d/6UHooWJ Type 1 Diabetes – True Stories: https://a.co/d/dfIlyI1

SHOW NOTES:

Your Tuesday 8pm HIIT class has opinions about your 3am blood sugar. The data is pretty clear on this. Neil is giving you fair warning before the episode starts.

This episode covers the timing of exercise and its downstream effects on both sleep quality and overnight glucose in type 1 diabetes. Afternoon and evening exercise produce very different results -- not because exercise is bad for T1D management (it isn't), but because your core body temperature, cortisol rhythm, and post-exercise glucose patterns interact with your sleep in ways that depend heavily on when you moved. The 8pm workout can raise core temperature, spike cortisol, and set up a 2am glucose drop that fires an alarm -- all without any other mistake being made.

We're in Week 7 of the While You Were Sleeping Challenge.

In this episode:

• Why afternoon exercise (roughly noon to 6pm) supports better sleep and overnight glucose stability
• What high-intensity evening exercise does to core body temperature and cortisol levels
• How post-exercise glucose drops in T1D can create 2-3am lows and trigger alarms
• What to look for in your overnight CGM data on workout days vs. rest days
• How even a modest timing shift can meaningfully change the overnight picture

This Week's Challenge: What time was your last workout? Pull up your overnight CGM from that night. Did anything look different than your non-workout nights?

Helpful resources and newsletter: https://yourbestt1dyear.com

Connect with Neil: TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@the.betes Instagram: https://instagram.com/thebetes Facebook: https://facebook.com/neilgreathouse LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/neil-greathouse-a607b912 Website: https://yourbestt1dyear.com

Books on Amazon: Type 1 Diabetes – One Day at a Time: https://a.co/d/6UHooWJ Type 1 Diabetes – True Stories: https://a.co/d/dfIlyI1

SHOW NOTES:

You slept seven hours. By any reasonable measure, that should be enough. You woke up feeling like you slept four. You weren't imagining it.

This episode breaks down sleep stages -- light sleep, deep sleep, REM -- and explains exactly where type 1 diabetes disrupts the sequence. The most important stage, slow-wave sleep (NREM Stage 3), is where your body does its deepest repair work: growth hormone release, cellular recovery, immune restocking, brain waste clearance. T1D adults get measurably less of it. Not because of anything you're doing wrong, but because T1D interrupts sleep architecture in ways that are documented in the research and that most T1D people were never told about.

This is Week 6 of the While You Were Sleeping Challenge. This is the episode that explains WHY you're tired even when the hours were there.

In this episode:

• The 90-minute sleep cycle and what each stage actually does for your body
• Why slow-wave sleep is the stage that matters most -- and why T1D adults get less of it
• How every alarm, partial arousal, and cortisol spike sends your brain back to Level 1
• The difference between "not enough hours" and "disrupted sleep stages" -- they feel the same but aren't
• How to check your deep sleep percentage if you have a wearable

This Week's Challenge: If you have a wearable that tracks sleep stages, check last night's deep sleep percentage. The average for most adults is 15-20%. Just know your number.

Helpful resources and newsletter: https://yourbestt1dyear.com

Connect with Neil: TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@the.betes Instagram: https://instagram.com/thebetes Facebook: https://facebook.com/neilgreathouse LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/neil-greathouse-a607b912 Website: https://yourbestt1dyear.com

Books on Amazon: Type 1 Diabetes – One Day at a Time: https://a.co/d/6UHooWJ Type 1 Diabetes – True Stories: https://a.co/d/dfIlyI1