How Stress Affects Your Blood Sugar (and What You Can Do About It) by Renée O'Shea, CNP
- Renée O'Shea
- 2 days ago
- 6 min read
Feeling Stressed and Noticing Blood Sugar Swings?
You're Not Alone.
When most people think of diabetes or prediabetes, they think of sugar, food choices, or a lack of movement. But there’s another piece that often gets overlooked: stress. Stress doesn’t just affect your mood, it can impact digestion, sleep, cravings, inflammation, and blood sugar. If you're tired all the time, feel scattered or anxious, or find yourself constantly reaching for something sweet, your stress response may be driving more of that than you think.
What you'll learn in this post:
How stress affects your metabolism and insulin
Why cravings increase under pressure
How gut health, sleep, and daily routines play a role
Simple steps to bring things back into balance
Let’s break it down together, no shame, just info.
What Happens in Your Body When You're Stressed
Stress kicks off a chain reaction in the body designed to help you survive. It activates your nervous system, raises your heart rate, and releases hormones like cortisol and adrenaline.
These hormones:
Raise your blood sugar to give you quick energy
Slow digestion and interfere with nutrient absorption
Make it harder to focus or fall asleep
This response is helpful short-term, like if you're avoiding danger. But when stress becomes part of your daily routine, it starts to wear you down.
How Stress Raises Blood Sugar
Cortisol signals your liver to release stored glucose into your bloodstream so your body has quick fuel. At the same time, it makes your cells less responsive to insulin, the hormone that helps shuttle sugar into your cells for energy. Adrenaline adds to this by encouraging fat breakdown, but that process releases substances that make insulin’s job even harder.
If you’re under chronic stress and also skipping meals, sleeping poorly, or not moving your body much, blood sugar can stay elevated. Over time, this pattern increases the risk for insulin resistance and prediabetes.
Stress and Inflammation: A Hidden Link
Chronic stress doesn’t just drain your energy—it also ramps up inflammation throughout the body. This low-grade, ongoing immune response might not come with obvious symptoms, but it quietly affects how your body handles blood sugar. Inflammation interferes with how insulin works, making it harder for sugar to move from your bloodstream into your cells. Over time, this contributes to insulin resistance and makes blood sugar harder to control.
It can also lead to more fat stored around the belly—an area linked with higher blood sugar, increased inflammation, and greater risk of metabolic conditions like type 2 diabetes. Research shows that stress can raise levels of inflammatory markers such as C-reactive protein (CRP) and interleukin-6 (IL-6), both of which are associated with changes in blood sugar control, mood, and even appetite. These shifts can be subtle at first but build over time, especially when stress becomes part of daily life.
When Stress Creeps Into Your Habits
You might not even notice it at first, but daily stress can quietly shift your routines in ways that raise blood sugar:
You skip meals or snack more often (especially on sweet or salty foods)
You feel too tired to exercise
You lie in bed awake at 2 a.m., your mind racing
You drink more coffee and less water, trying to keep going
Each one of these has an impact. Together, they can create a cycle where your energy drops, cravings increase, and blood sugar gets harder to manage.
How to Spot Stress-Related Blood Sugar Changes
Wondering if stress is showing up in your blood sugar? Here are some clues to look for:
Physical signs
You wake up between 2–4 a.m. and have trouble getting back to sleep
You feel wired in the morning, then crash in the afternoon
You’re often bloated, gassy, or your digestion feels “off”
You get sick more often or take longer to recover
Mood and energy
You feel irritable or impatient over little things
You struggle to concentrate or forget simple tasks
You feel exhausted but still can’t rest
Eating patterns
You crave sugar or carbs after a long day
You barely eat all day, then feel ravenous at night
You feel full but still want something sweet
The Gut-Brain Connection
Your gut and brain are always in conversation, through nerves, hormones, and even gut bacteria. This system, called the gut-brain axis, helps regulate your mood, immune function, and metabolism.
When you're stressed:
Digestion may slow down or speed up
Your gut lining can become more permeable (“leaky gut”)
The mix of bacteria in your gut can shift
These changes can lead to:
Bloating, cramping, or discomfort
Reduced absorption of nutrients
Increased inflammation
Some gut bacteria help manage blood sugar and reduce inflammation by producing short-chain fatty acids. When stress lowers their numbers, your metabolism takes a hit.
Good news: eating more fibre-rich plant foods, sleeping well, and taking time to unwind can help bring balance back to your gut and your blood sugar.
Why Stress Sparks Cravings
When your nervous system is overstimulated, your brain goes looking for quick comfort. That usually means sugar, refined carbs, or ultra-processed snacks. These foods trigger a dopamine release, the brain’s “feel-good” chemical. That temporary boost can make your body feel safer or more grounded, especially if stress is coming from all angles.
You’re more likely to feel these cravings if you’re:
Skipping meals or eating unbalanced snacks
Low on sleep (which makes impulse control harder)
Feeling emotionally tapped out
Cravings aren’t a character flaw. They’re a message from your brain and body that something needs attention. You can shift them over time with consistent meals, better sleep, more protein and fibre, and healthier ways to wind down.
Stress and Blood Sugar Management: Why It Matters
If you’re already working to manage blood sugar, stress can feel like a hidden force working against you. It can:
Raise your fasting blood sugar even if your meals are balanced
Cause erratic highs and lows throughout the day
Increase emotional eating or reduce physical activity
Many people with type 2 diabetes or prediabetes report feeling frustrated that their numbers seem “off” even when they’re trying hard. Stress is often the missing piece.
Don’t Skip Sleep—Your Metabolism Depends on It
Stress disrupts your sleep, and poor sleep throws off your hormones. This includes:
Increased cortisol levels in the morning
Lower insulin sensitivity the next day
Increased ghrelin (hunger hormone) and reduced leptin (satiety hormone)
Chronic sleep disruption also alters your circadian rhythm, which affects how your body manages glucose throughout the day. People who work irregular hours, experience social jet lag, or go to bed too late may struggle more with energy, cravings, and blood sugar swings.
Prioritizing sleep isn’t lazy, it’s one of the best tools you have.
How Personal Factors Play a Role
Not everyone responds to stress the same way. Your biology matters.
Age: As we get older, we become more insulin resistant, and stress has a bigger impact.
Sex hormones: Women may notice more fluctuations during perimenopause or PMS.
Genetics: Some people have more reactive stress systems or less flexible glucose regulation.
Knowing your tendencies helps you plan ahead and give yourself a bit more grace when things feel harder than usual.
Self-Check: Is Stress Affecting Your Blood Sugar?
Ask yourself:
Am I skipping meals or eating less regularly than usual?
Have I been waking up in the night or sleeping poorly?
Do I feel like I’m on edge most of the day?
Have I noticed stronger sugar or carb cravings?
Are my energy crashes or brain fog more frequent?
If you said yes to more than two of these, your stress response might be part of the picture.
Simple Steps to Try This Week
You don’t need to overhaul your life. Here are a few ways to support your body right now:
Eat balanced meals:
Include protein and fibre at each meal
Avoid skipping meals or eating standing up
Move in ways that feel good:
Walk after meals
Do 10 minutes of stretching or a short video in the evening
Sleep first:
Create a wind-down routine
Stick to consistent sleep and wake times (yes, even on weekends)
Support your nervous system:
Try slow breathing for one minute before meals
Take breaks during the day—even 2 minutes of stillness helps
Talk it out with someone who listens well
Final Thoughts
Stress doesn’t always look dramatic. Sometimes it just feels like dragging yourself through the day, reaching for another coffee, or wondering why you can’t sleep.
It can quietly impact how your body processes sugar, stores fat, and recovers from day-to-day life.
But there’s good news: small, steady changes help. And you don’t have to do it alone.
Ready to Support Your Body (Without the Overwhelm)?
Here, at The Root of Health, we help you connect the dots between stress, sleep, cravings, and blood sugar. In a consultation, we’ll walk through your daily routines, lab results, and patterns, and build a plan that fits your life.
Ready to feel more in control again? Book an appointment today.
References
PMC: Stress-Induced Diabetes: A Review
PMC: The Multiple Roles of Life Stress in Metabolic Disordershttps://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36224493/
Karger: Stress and Diabetes Mellitus—Pathogenetic Mechanisms and Clinical Implicationshttps://karger.com/hrp/article/96/1/34/841550/Stress-and-Diabetes-Mellitus-Pathogenetic