Dawn phenomenon, or something similar

Does anyone here find that they have a rise in blood sugar if they get up and don’t eat, but are fine if they are just sleeping?

I’m Type 1, on a pump, and my basal rates are set so that I can sleep however late I want and still wake up with a good blood sugar. But when I wake up, if I don’t eat right away, my blood sugar starts to rise. It’s almost like I need to take a bolus even without food. It’s not a big rise, but I frequently wake up in the 5.5 - 6.5 range and then an hour later by the time I’m eating breakfast I’ll be in the 7.0 - 8.0 range and need to correct. This morning I woke up at 5.9 which is a great morning reading, and an hour later when I retested to bolus for breakfast I was 7.6. It’s annoying because now I have to correct and will also rise higher after breakfast than I would starting at a lower number. I haven’t eaten a single thing this morning, nor exercised or done anything like that, and this is quite typical. If I’d waited two or three hours to eat (which happens sometimes when I have to leave early for an all-day workshop or something) I can easily be 12-13 by the time I eat, even though I woke up at a good number. But if I’d spent that hour sleeping and just had breakfast as soon as I woke up, I’d likely be fine.

Just wondering if anyone has heard of this and if it’s common or not, and also if anyone has experience just doing a small bolus. I get nervous bolusing when I’m not high and not eating because then I might go low, but maybe something small like 0.5 units would prevent the rise.

I’m a T2 who doesn’t use insulin so my situation is different from yours. But yes I have found I can decrease my morning spike by eating immediately upon rising, even when I don’t want to. The other thing I do is eat extremely low carb typically 3 grams of carbs or so. This reduces but does not eliminate my morning spike.

This happens to me as well. This morning for example I to to a 95 at 5:45am. Great#. After getting ready for work I stop for breakfast at the local joint. 20 minute b4 eating I was 112. Still ok but it happens to me every day. I am in the process of gathering #'s for my endo and plan on talking to them.
Sorry no help but you are not alone.

Yes, absolutely. If I get up, I have to take my morning shot and eat breakfast. If I don’t, I actually need more insulin to keep my bg in target than if I did eat. If I don’t eat, I end up correcting, and correcting, and correcting, and correcting, taking lots more units of insuln than if I did eat.

With me, if I get up at 6AM and I’m at 80, then I don’t eat for two hours, I can have a bg in the 300+'s at 8AM. It’s not always that bad, but sometimes it is. My solution? Eat breakfast and take my shot when I get up!