Cruddy brown saliva

Dear Blogging audience (a veritable universe!!)

This isn't an aspect of my life I share without considerable thought. What I'm about to discuss is neither pleasant not great self-PR. But nevertheless, I've googled extensively this subject and find nothing that constitutes a satisfactory answer. Thus I beseech you, can anyone tell me what kind of crud I spit out in the middle of the night when I go for a no. 1? And what I can do to stop it happening?

So, I wake up needing a gypsy's kiss. My mouth, though, is all dry and tastes dreadful. I spit into the sink. What comes out is grim, and ranges in colour from light green-yellow to coca-cola brown. It is mid-way in texture between snot and saliva.

I am borderline diabetic, and wondered if what I have is the result of mouth thrush. But I can't find this symptom when I look under diabetes, and I wouldn't know whether this is one of the fun filled results of such a condition. And anyhow, the description of this condition seem to indicate that the crap you spit out is creamy in colour.

My physiotherapist daughter thinks my lungs are ridding themselves of all the accumulated nicotine and tar from when I was a 20-a-day smoker for 10 years (gave in October 2006 - so far, so good).

Anyone have any idea? It doesn't happen every night, but it does seem to occur more regularly (though not always) following the consumption of large amounts of food, regardless of whether my teeth have been cleaned.

Most likely guesses from my point of view are:

1) Diabetes (yeast, maybe)
2) Nicotine
3) Gum or palate disease
4) Bacteria in throat or sinuses

Not sure though.

Any serious opinions will be given consideration.