Your Best T1D Year

Neil Greathouse

Managing Type 1 Diabetes doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Each 5-minute episode of Your Best T1D Year is packed with practical strategies, mindset shifts, and a little humor to help you feel more in control and less frustrated by diabetes. Hosted by Neil Greathouse, this Monday, Wednesday, and Friday podcast delivers quick, relatable episodes that make learning about T1D effortless - so you can build small wins that lead to big changes. 📅 New episodes drop every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. 🎧 Subscribe now and start making diabetes management feel easier - one small habit at a time.

  1. 20h ago

    Fear of Hypoglycemia: The T1D Sleep Problem That Doesn't Show Up in Your CGM Data

    SHOW NOTES: Your CGM says 115. Flat arrow. No active insulin. You've checked it twice. The number is completely fine. And you're still awake at 2:48am. This is not you being dramatic. This has a name: Fear of Hypoglycemia (FOH). It's a documented, peer-reviewed phenomenon in T1D populations -- a specific pattern of nighttime hypervigilance that persists even when blood sugar is stable. The anxiety is the disruptor, independent of the actual glucose level. And it's one of the most undernamed contributors to T1D sleep disruption. In this episode, Neil explains where Fear of Hypoglycemia comes from, why it makes complete sense that it developed, and why having the name for it changes how you relate to the 2am wake-up. Nobody told most T1D people this name. That's the problem this episode is here to fix. We're in Week 6 of the While You Were Sleeping Challenge. In this episode: What Fear of Hypoglycemia actually is and what peer-reviewed research says about itWhy the overnight hypervigilance response is a rational system with an irrational triggerThe difference between "I'm being irrational" and "I have a documented T1D sleep phenomenon"Why naming FOH changes how you relate to being awake at 2am with a perfect numberWhat comes next: what you can actually do about itThis Week's Challenge: Have you ever been awake at 2am with a completely stable blood sugar and still couldn't sleep? Just acknowledge that it happened. That's the whole challenge. 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

    7 min

  2. 3d ago

    Cortisol and Blood Sugar: The T1D Overnight Connection You're Probably Missing

    SHOW NOTES: Cortisol isn't trying to ruin your blood sugar. It's trying to help. It has never once, in your entire life, acted with malice. It is a useful, important hormone that is -- in the modern world -- very confused about what an actual emergency looks like. This episode is about cortisol: what it's designed to do, what it's actually responding to in modern life ("quick question" emails at 10pm), and what it's doing to your blood sugar by midnight. For T1D people, cortisol-driven blood sugar rises don't get quietly compensated by a functioning pancreas. They land. And they land on top of whatever else was already happening overnight. Understanding the cortisol loop is the first step to interrupting it -- starting with the hour before bed. We're in Week 6 of the While You Were Sleeping Challenge. Solutions are building. In this episode: What cortisol is actually designed to do -- and why your lion never shows upHow cortisol raises blood sugar in T1D without the automatic pancreas feedback to catch itThe full cortisol loop: poor sleep raises cortisol, cortisol raises blood sugar, elevated blood sugar disrupts sleepWhy what you do in the hour before bed shows up in your midnight glucoseHow to start rating your pre-bed stress and looking for the pattern in your own dataThis Week's Challenge: Rate your stress level 1-10 before bed, three nights this week. Note your morning blood sugar each time. Look for the pattern. 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

    7 min

  3. 5d ago

    How Bedroom Temperature and Blue Light Affect Blood Sugar in Type 1 Diabetes

    SHOW NOTES: Neil wants to be upfront: this episode is going to sound like wellness content delivered by someone standing in a field in linen pants. He knows. He can't control how it sounds. What he can tell you is that there's actual research behind all of it, it specifically applies to T1D glucose management, and he read most of it at midnight on his phone in bed with the screen at full brightness. Your sleep environment -- specifically temperature, light, and screen exposure -- directly affects the hormones that regulate both sleep and glucose. For T1D people, those hormones matter more because there's no backup system to compensate when they go sideways. Blue light at 10pm tells your brain it's daytime, suppresses melatonin, and raises cortisol. A warm room keeps your core temperature elevated, making it harder to drop into deep sleep. Both of these things are doing quiet work against your blood sugar while you're trying to rest. We're in Week 5 of the While You Were Sleeping Challenge. In this episode: How blue light from screens suppresses melatonin and triggers cortisol at 10pmWhy your phone screen registers as "daytime" to your brain's sleep-wake systemCore body temperature and its role in reaching deep sleep stagesThe research-backed temperature range for better sleep qualityOne practical environmental change to make tonight that doesn't require buying anythingThis Week's Challenge: Know your bedroom temperature. Tonight, put your phone face down one hour before bed. Not in another room -- just face down. See what happens. 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

    8 min

  4. Jun 1

    Your Pre-Sleep Blood Sugar Check Is a Sleep Decision, Not Just a Safety Check

    SHOW NOTES: You already do this. You check your blood sugar before bed, glance at your CGM, maybe set a temp basal. You've been doing it for as long as you've had T1D. Here's the reframe: you've been doing it as a safety check. "Am I okay to go to sleep?" This episode argues it's also a sleep decision -- and that shift changes what you're actually optimizing for. Active insulin at midnight is a sleep variable. A correction dose from 9pm is still tailing off at 1am. That tail can create glucose variability that pulls you out of deep sleep without triggering an alarm -- a partial arousal that costs you sleep quality without you knowing it happened. The more stable your blood sugar heading into sleep, the fewer overnight alarms, the better your sleep architecture, and the better your insulin sensitivity the next morning. Welcome to June. Welcome to Week 5 of the While You Were Sleeping Challenge. This is where we start doing something about it. In this episode: How pre-sleep blood sugar affects sleep quality, not just overnight safetyWhat active insulin at bedtime does to your 1am and 2am sleep stagesThe 30-minutes-before-bed check and why timing makes a differenceHow pre-sleep glucose stability connects directly to tomorrow morning's insulin sensitivityStarting the feedback loop running in the right direction tonightThis Week's Challenge: Check your blood sugar 30 minutes before bed -- not right when you're about to sleep. Note the number and any active insulin on board. Do this three nights and see what the mornings look like. 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

    7 min

  5. May 29

    T1D Sleep Challenge: Four Weeks In, What We've Learned

    SHOW NOTES: Four weeks ago, Neil asked you to do one thing: write down how many hours you slept. That was it. Just a number. And now here we are. This is the halftime checkpoint of the While You Were Sleeping Challenge. Neil does what any good coach does at halftime -- pulls everyone in, takes a breath, and goes over what we actually know. Because the first four weeks covered a lot: recognition, the 21% number, the dawn phenomenon, the sleep-blood sugar feedback loop, bedtime consistency, sleep architecture differences in T1D, and CGM alarm fatigue. And the goal today is to actually sit with what changed before we move into solutions. May was all problem and mechanism. June is different. June is where we build. We're in Week 5 of the While You Were Sleeping Challenge. If you're just finding this, jump in right here. You're not behind. In this episode: A full recap of Weeks 1 through 4 and everything established so farWhy problem-naming has to come before solution-buildingWhat the second half of the challenge covers (cortisol, Fear of Hypoglycemia, CGM as a proactive tool, pre-sleep routines)How to look at your own four weeks of data before June beginsWhat "paying attention" for four weeks actually produced, even if the tracking wasn't perfectThis Week's Challenge: What's one thing you noticed in the last four weeks? Not a conclusion. Not a solved problem. One thing you noticed. Write it in one sentence. 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

    7 min

  6. May 27

    How to Adjust CGM Alarm Thresholds for Better Sleep with Type 1 Diabetes

    SHOW NOTES: When did you last actually look at your CGM alarm threshold settings? Not to silence an alarm. Not to check a number. To actually look at the thresholds -- the settings, the specific values, when they were last changed. If your answer is "when I first set up the device," this episode is for you. Neil walks through what CGM alarm thresholds are, why they're not permanent features of having T1D, and why the settings you're running right now may be calibrated for a different version of your management than the one you have today. Your diabetes has changed. Your time in range has changed. Your thresholds probably haven't. This is a practical episode -- no heavy science, just a straightforward conversation about settings you can actually look at and, when appropriate, adjust. We're in Week 4 of the While You Were Sleeping Challenge. This is the actionable follow-up to Monday's alarm fatigue episode. In this episode: What CGM alarm thresholds are and how most people originally set themWhy outdated thresholds create unnecessary overnight wake-ups even when management has improvedThe difference between thresholds optimized for daytime control vs. overnight sleepQuiet hours and do-not-disturb settings most CGM users don't know existWhy this conversation is worth having with your care teamThis Week's Challenge: Open your CGM app. Find the alarm threshold settings. Look at the numbers. Do they still match where your management actually is? 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

    7 min

  7. May 25

    CGM Alarm Fatigue in Type 1 Diabetes: How Your Alerts Are Wrecking Your Sleep

    SHOW NOTES: How many times did your CGM alarm last night? If you have to guess -- or if you're honestly not sure because your arm is doing the silence-and-go-back-to-sleep thing on autopilot -- that's alarm fatigue. And it's a documented, peer-reviewed phenomenon that's costing you sleep in ways that quietly compound every single night. This episode is about the complicated relationship T1D people have with CGM alarms. They're lifesaving. They're also, at times, genuinely maddening. There's a real, measurable difference between alarms that protect you and alarms that interrupt your sleep architecture without adding any safety benefit. Neil talks about how alarm fatigue develops, what it costs your sleep stages, and why the answer isn't to turn everything off -- it's calibration. We're in Week 4 of the While You Were Sleeping Challenge. In this episode: What alarm fatigue is and how it develops in T1D people over timeHow sub-threshold wake-ups disrupt sleep architecture without a full wake-upThe boy-who-cried-wolf problem in CGM management -- and why the wolf is still realWhy calibration (not silence) is the right responseThe peer-reviewed paper with a title that's definitely just a research paper titleThis Week's Challenge: Count how many times your CGM alarmed last night. Don't do anything about it yet. Just get the 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

    6 min

  8. May 22

    What Type 1 Diabetes Actually Does to Your Sleep Architecture | Episode 200

    SHOW NOTES: 200 episodes. Neil didn't plan on this. He definitely didn't plan on spending episode 200 explaining what your liver does at 3am without your permission. And yet here we are. This is the episode that contains the most important thing Neil has said in this entire challenge. Most T1D content talks about sleep in two ways: the safety angle (set your alarms right) or the wellness angle (get enough rest). Neither goes far enough. What the research actually shows is that T1D adults have fundamentally different sleep architecture than adults without T1D -- measurably less slow-wave sleep, higher overnight hormone levels, and a higher arousal index that keeps them closer to the surface all night. You're not bad at sleeping. You've been sleeping with a condition that literally changes how sleep works in your body. And nobody told you. This is Week 4 of the While You Were Sleeping Challenge. 200 episodes in. This one matters. In this episode: The documented differences in T1D sleep architecture vs. non-T1D adultsWhat slow-wave sleep is and why T1D people get measurably less of itWhat "arousal index" means and why it explains waking up tired after 7 hoursWhy endocrinologists and sleep doctors don't talk to each other (but should)Why episode 200 was the right moment to say this out loudThis Week's Challenge: Tell one person about this challenge. Someone with T1D, or who loves someone with T1D. One ripple. 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

    8 min
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4.8
out of 5
25 Ratings

About

Managing Type 1 Diabetes doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Each 5-minute episode of Your Best T1D Year is packed with practical strategies, mindset shifts, and a little humor to help you feel more in control and less frustrated by diabetes. Hosted by Neil Greathouse, this Monday, Wednesday, and Friday podcast delivers quick, relatable episodes that make learning about T1D effortless - so you can build small wins that lead to big changes. 📅 New episodes drop every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. 🎧 Subscribe now and start making diabetes management feel easier - one small habit at a time.

Information

  • Creator
    Neil Greathouse
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    203
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Neil Greathouse
  • Show Website
    Your Best T1D Year

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