Chronic malaise in uncontrolled type 2 diabetes due to obstructive sleep apnoea

Abstract

A 57‐year‐old morbidly obese man with type 2 diabetes for five years, poorly controlled on gliclazide therapy, was referred with hyperglycaemic symptoms including severe daytime malaise and weariness. Features of obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome (OSA) were identified, and confirmed by limited polysomnography. Treatment with nocturnal nasal continuous positive airways pressure (CPAP) was instituted with dramatic relief of daytime symptoms, including morning headaches and also nocturia, which might otherwise have been attributed to changes in blood glucose. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Sleep apnoea, diabetes and insulin resistance

“…Nevertheless, it is very likely that most diabetic clinics contain sizeable numbers of patients with symptomatic sleep apnoea, many of whom have yet to be identified. It is all too easy to attribute fatigue, sleepiness and nocturia to diabetes rather than to the coexisting sleep apnoea syndrome 15. Individuals with these symptoms should be asked whether they snore (a cardinal feature of OSAS) and sleepiness should be assessed using the simple self‐reported Epworth sleepiness scale 16.…”