How sleep, stress and sickness can impact your blood glucose levels

Ever looked at your glucose reading and thought, what did I do wrong? This episode is for you.There's so much more going on behind those numbers than what's on your plate. I'm joined by Elise Hoyer, a diabetes educator and exercise physiologist, to talk through the hidden factors that can push your blood glucose levels around - things like broken sleep, everyday stress, getting sick, and even vaccinations. We get into the hormones involved (hello, cortisol and leptin), why your body has other priorities when it's running on empty, and why a reading that doesn't hit the target is not a reflection of you doing something wrong. We also get into what a "rage check" is, why you should absolutely not do one, and what normal variation between readings actually looks like.Full shownotes: https://heygestie.com/blogs/podcast/ep-12-sleep-stress-sickness Chapters00:00 Introduction 00:36 Why numbers can be off even when you're doing everything right 01:14 How poor sleep disrupts blood glucose - cortisol and leptin explained 02:51 Simple sleep hygiene habits for pregnancy 03:51 Timing your water to reduce middle-of-the-night toilet trips 05:15 The doom scroll problem and setting a phone curfew06:14 How stress affects blood glucose through cortisol 07:58 How GDM itself becomes a stressor - and how to reframe it 09:55 Getting support and reducing the anxiety around testing 11:03 The placenta and who's really to blame for GDM ;)11:57 Why gestational diabetes doesn't discriminate 13:10 How illness impacts blood glucose during pregnancy 15:15 When to contact your healthcare provider if you're sick 17:49 Can vaccinations temporarily affect your glucose levels? 19:43 The mental load as a hidden stressor20:35 What to do when numbers are unexpected - and why they don't define you 21:31 What is a rage check and why you should avoid it22:48 Closing thoughts