Your Best T1D Year

Neil Greathouse
  • 4.8 (25)
  • HEALTH & FITNESS
  • UPDATED DAILY

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. 1D AGO

    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

  2. 4D AGO

    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

  3. 6D AGO

    Bedtime Consistency and T1D: Why Timing Beats Total Hours for Blood Sugar Control

    SHOW NOTES: You've been told to get eight hours. Here's what the research actually found. A 2023 study of 76 adults with type 1 diabetes tracked both CGM and sleep data for one week. The finding: sleep duration alone was not independently associated with time in range. What was? Bedtime consistency. Every extra hour of variability in bedtime was associated with roughly 10% less time in range. Your CGM noticed. It was taking notes. This episode reframes the sleep conversation for T1D: it's not just about how much you sleep. It's about when. Your body doesn't know it's Saturday. Your cortisol doesn't know it's Saturday. Only your social calendar knows it's Saturday -- and your social calendar is not in charge of your A1C. We're in Week 3 of the While You Were Sleeping Challenge. In this episode: The 2023 T1D sleep study and what it actually measuredWhy six people who each got 7 hours got six different resultsWhat bedtime consistency means practically -- and why it matters more than total hoursWhy weekend sleep timing is where this breaks down for most peopleThe 60-minute window and why it worksThis Week's Challenge: Try to go to bed within a 60-minute window of the same time, three nights this week. Not all seven. Just three. 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

  4. MAY 18

    The T1D Sleep-Blood Sugar Feedback Loop

    SHOW NOTES: Bad sleep makes your blood sugar harder to manage. Worse blood sugar disrupts your sleep. Worse sleep makes your blood sugar worse. You've been running a feedback loop -- without knowing it. This is the episode where things click. Neil connects all the pieces from Weeks 1 and 2 into the full picture: the bidirectional relationship between sleep and glucose management in type 1 diabetes. High blood sugar increases overnight bathroom trips. Low blood sugar fires the alarm. Glucose variability through the night disrupts sleep architecture even without a full wake-up. And the worse you sleep, the more your insulin sensitivity drops the next day. The loop is real. And here's what nobody usually says: you can interrupt it from either side. We're in Week 3 of the While You Were Sleeping Challenge. In this episode: The full sleep-blood sugar feedback loop in T1D, explained end to endWhy both high and low blood sugar disrupt sleep in different waysHow glucose variability affects sleep stages even without a full wake-upWhy you don't have to fix both sides of the loop at onceHow to pick one end of the rope and start pullingThis Week's Challenge: Pick one small thing to try before bed. Just one. An early blood sugar check, consistent bedtime two nights in a row, screens down an hour before sleep. Write down what happened in the morning. 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

  5. MAY 15

    The Dawn Phenomenon in Type 1 Diabetes: Why Your Blood Sugar Rises While You Sleep

    SHOW NOTES: You went to bed at a perfect 110. No active insulin. Flat arrow. You did everything right. You wake up at 182. Nothing happened -- no low, no alarm. You just slept. Except something did happen. You just weren't awake for it. This episode introduces the dawn phenomenon: the pre-dawn hormonal surge (cortisol, growth hormone, glucagon, epinephrine) that causes your liver to manufacture and release glucose into your bloodstream between roughly 3am and 8am, every single night, without your permission. For people without T1D, the pancreas handles this automatically and they never know it happened. For T1D people, the glucose just lands -- and then we stand in the kitchen at 6am holding an insulin vial up to the light, wondering what on earth went wrong. This is Week 3 of the While You Were Sleeping Challenge. We're getting into actual mechanisms. In this episode: What the dawn phenomenon actually is and what triggers itHepatic glucose output explained in plain English (and why it sounds like a Jurassic Park sequel)Why non-T1D people never notice this happening overnightWhat 34 years of blaming the insulin vial actually looked likeHow to start spotting the dawn phenomenon in your own overnight CGM dataThis Week's Challenge: Pull up your overnight CGM graph from last night. Do you see a gradual rise starting around 3 or 4am when your blood sugar was otherwise flat? Just look. Don't change anything yet. 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 13

    Why Sleep Deprivation Hits Harder When You Have T1D

    SHOW NOTES: Sleep deprivation reduces insulin sensitivity in everyone. That's not a T1D-specific finding. Here's what is. In people without diabetes, the system has a feedback loop. Insulin sensitivity drops, blood sugar ticks up slightly, the pancreas compensates automatically, and the whole thing resolves before they're even awake. They make coffee, go about their day, and have no idea any of it happened. For T1D people, that feedback loop doesn't exist. The penalty just lands. This episode explains why the same sleep deprivation hits harder when you don't have a functioning pancreas to compensate -- and why T1D people have been quietly doing the backup system's job manually every single morning, often without realizing that's what they were doing. We're in Week 2 of the While You Were Sleeping Challenge. In this episode: How a healthy pancreas automatically compensates for sleep-related insulin sensitivity changesWhy the T1D body absorbs the full 21% impact without automatic correctionWhat "doing the backup system's job manually" actually looks like before the first cup of coffeeThe emotional reality of running on interrupted sleep while managing blood sugarWhat to add to your data tracking this weekThis Week's Challenge: On mornings after rough nights, notice if you had to work harder -- more corrections, more frustration, numbers that were less predictable. That's the 21% showing up in real life. 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

  7. MAY 11

    One Night of Poor Sleep Reduces Insulin Sensitivity

    SHOW NOTES: Here's the number: 21%. One study. People with type 1 diabetes. Sleep-deprived condition (4 hours) versus adequate sleep (8.5 hours). Same food, same insulin, same activities. The sleep-deprived group showed a 21% reduction in insulin sensitivity the next day. Every single participant. This is the episode Neil has been building toward. If you've ever had a day where your insulin felt slow -- where corrections didn't land, where you corrected twice before breakfast and were still running higher than expected -- this episode gives you a name for what was happening. And it changes how you respond to those mornings going forward. This is Week 2 of the While You Were Sleeping Challenge. This is the research drop. In this episode: The specific study on sleep and insulin sensitivity in type 1 diabetes -- and what it actually showedWhat a 21% reduction in insulin sensitivity looks like in real life (the bathtub analogy)Why the effect showed up in every single participant, not just someWhat LeBron James figured out about sleep that the rest of us are just now learningHow to use this information to give yourself grace on mornings after rough nightsThis Week's Challenge: Look back at your data from Week 1. On the mornings after your worst nights of sleep, did your insulin feel different? Did corrections land differently? 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

  8. MAY 8

    What's Really Causing Your Unexplained Blood Sugars

    SHOW NOTES: The pump site. The insulin. The food from six hours ago. The stress. The general vibe. Neil has blamed every single one of these for blood sugars that made no sense -- and for 34 years, he kept leaving one variable off the list entirely. This episode is about blood sugar archaeology: the 7am investigation T1D people run every morning. Holding the insulin vial up to the light. Going through the mental checklist. Sometimes coming up completely empty. The problem wasn't missing something obvious -- it was missing a variable that was never on the list in the first place. And on Monday, Neil delivers the specific number from the research that changes what that variable looks like. Week 2 of the While You Were Sleeping Challenge kicks off here. Today, he sets the stage and helps you look back at the data you've been collecting. In this episode: The full list of things Neil has blamed for blood sugars that didn't make sense (34 years of data)Why the T1D blood sugar checklist keeps coming up emptyThe "Law and Order at 7am" method of investigation -- and why it failsWhat the research says is the actual missing variableHow to look back at your Week 1 data before Monday's big episodeThis Week's Challenge: Think about the most confusing blood sugar you've had recently. What time did you go to sleep the night before? 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
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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
    197
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Neil Greathouse
  • Show Website
    Your Best T1D Year

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