What Causes Disorientation, Dizziness And Nausea Upon Waking?

Posted on Fri, 2 Oct 2015

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Fri, 2 Oct 2015 Answered on

Fri, 23 Oct 2015 Last reviewed on

Question : For the past couple of days I have been experiencing disorientation, dizziness and nausea when I wake up. This occurs as bed spins even before I raise my head from the pillow. I am a type 2 diabetic. My blood pressure today has decreased with every test. My last reading was 99/67. My last glucose reading was 172 at about 9:30 pm. I am 63 years old and went through menopause over 10 years ago. This situation is becoming quite dibilatiting.

Answered by Dr. Binu Parameswaran Pillai (3 hours later)

Brief Answer:
Need medical care with out delay

Detailed Answer:
Good day,
Noted your symptoms.
Low blood pressure itself could cause giddiness and nausea. Blood pressure may further drop down if you suddenly stand up from lying position or even stand up after sitting for a whiile. Do you experience such symptoms?

The most common cause of such symptom is due to blood pressure medications. Are you on them?

Any chest pain or breathing difficulty?? Or have you ever had a heart problem ?

Rarely diabetic autonomic neuropathy also can cause this. Hence you need to be examined by a doctor, preferably an endocrinologist in detail.

I would recommend following tests.
1) CBC,
2) Blood urea and creatinine.
3) 8 AM serum cortisol.
4) Thyroid blood profile
5) Urine Routine
6) Serum sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium and Albumin.
7) An ECG ( very important).

Please do not delay in seeking medical help.
Regards
Binu

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar