Ok, I never know what to set my overnight basal at, between .7 and now 1.0 from 12 am to 5 am. I can't believe I set it to 1.0, because during the day I use less than half of that amount. .3 and .4 This stuff is so crazy.
I have a CGM and usually see the rise around 3:00 AM so I put the "bump" there. I usually am about 10-25% higher until 7:00 AM as I just leave it cranked up for breakfast as I sometimes see spikes. I agree that it can be crazy. The worst I had was September last year, it went from .9U/ hour to 1.4/ hour and I was still seeing highs so I did 1.5U for a short time and it worked. Just out of nowhere. I was also in a bit of a snit as the Chicago Marathon was coming up Oct 9 and I didn't want to be turning into a basal zombie at the start of a long run but it worked out fine and then, after the race, it went away and back to sort of normal?
I think that it might be connected to seasons, like "get out and hunt and gather" or something like that?
Yeah, I have what I call "seasonal basal rate changes." I have one basal rate currently set to 1.0 for a few hours during the night. Which also for me is NUTS because my daytime basal rates are generally never more than 0.5/hour. However, once the temperatures start going up to above 70 degrees, I will have to cut back or I will start having some scary lows. For me, temperature has a significant impact on my BGs. My insulin needs drop pretty significantly in the really hot summer months (I'm more active and the heat causes my insulin to absorb MUCH faster).
I increase my basal at 3 am by 10% and then again at 7 am 25% until 11 am. I have DP plus a second phase when I get up in the morning, my BG sky rockets so I bolus insulin it's a big correction about the same as 5 hours of basal insulin. This works but some days my BG decides not to spike when I get out of bead so a basal increase to cover this will not work and I decide if it's necessary by watching my CGM trend. I use 70% of my TDD before lunch. Using a CGM is how I discovered this mess and I have learned how to handle it using my CGM. I'm happy if my BG is under 125 when I get out of bead and I just do what ever it takes to stay on target for the remainder of the day.
I frequently have to bolus and wait 30 minutes for my coffee because of DP. Misery! My CGM shows that I do not get a regular time of DP and it is the motions of getting up that bump me up right when I need my caffeine.
After frequent overnight testing (a pain!), I've set my MM522 basal rates as follows:
12:00 0.25 u/hr.
3:00 0.9 u/hr.
8:00 0.65 u/hr.
You need to determine when your dawn effect kicks in, then up the basal rate 30 minutes before. Your times and rates will vary, of course!
My basal rates go like:
12:00 - 0.90
03:00 - 1.20
07:00 - 1.30
10:00 - 1.05
05:00 - 1.15
08:00 - 0.90
I put in the second morning "bump" because I found I was going high later in the morning, but changing the 03:00 - 07:00 rate made me go too low. Seems to be working out okay, although by far morning numbers are the hardest to keep in check.
Hi Kelly et al.
As they say, YMMV! My basals jump around a lot, too:
8 pm - 0.40 u/hr
2 am - 0.75 u/hr
7 am - 0.90 u/hr
10 am - 0.45 u/hr
2 pm - 0.60 u/hr
5 pm - 0.65 u/hr
8 pm - (and repeat...)
I used to have terrible troubles with overnight lows and morning highs (i.e., D.P.). Since I started pumping 4 years ago, those 2 problems have been pretty much "tamed."
It's nice to know you're not alone. It's so frustrating though when last week I was waking up in the 60's on .8 and this week I'm waking up in the 140's. Plus, I had a weird day yesterday when my basal was too high on the current settings and I fought lows all day. Of course it's perfectly normal today . . . you never know what you're gonna get sometimes. At least I am getting better at taking a breath and plugging along!
I always seem to hit my DP at 2 am, I don't seem to have the problem with breakfast that a lot of folks do though, trade one for the other I guess.
Feeling awesome this morning woke up 95. CGM showed 90 at bedtime then up to 130 around 2 am and then 95 on waking up.
That is great you are feeling awesome! I woke up at 6.5 (117 mg/dl) so am great as well (that is a good number for me, I know some would consider it high).
I don't have a CGM and I honestly find my overnight readings harder to control than my daytime readings, just because I'm not testing constantly and (even with waking up to test once or twice occasionally) have no idea what is going on.
I would be happy with 117, especially how erratic I have been lately. The day I saw my CDE, that morning I was 317! I hate it when they ask what my morning BG is because that's not how I am during the day. It's pretty consistent for me during daytime and funny to look at on CGM how my liver kills me at night. I will be 90 and then literally straight up into 140's and higher where it stays that way til morning. Of course in 2 or 3 weeks it could be something completely different again. . . .