Does anyone have a problem with knowing how Lantus will work? I take it at bedtime and never know how much it will lower my blood sugar overnight. Sometimes it stays almost the same, and other times I can drop 100. Am thinking I would rather be low any time other than in the middle of the night.
Have you tried talking to your doctor about changing the lantus to a morning dose? When I was on MDI’s I started out taking lantus at night and had to change it to the mornings. This might make your lows during your waking hours when your fast acting insulin could be adjusted to compensate for this. I was struggling w/ morning lows, which is why they moved my dosage to the morning.
Drop 100! That’s awful. What’s your reading before bed?
Lantus had peaks for me & I’ve had better luck with Levemir being more stable. Since using Levemir I don’t have the lows I used to. I take two doses of Levemir (also took two doses of Lantus). Because of dawn phenomenon, I take basal right before bed & then in the morning.
How big a dose are you taking? At small doses, the precipitate of Lantus in the body might absorb too quickly, causing lows followed by highs later as it conks before 24 hours.
Once I reduced my Lantus dose below 14 units a day, I had erratic results similar to yours where it would drop me anywhere from 30 to over 100 pts. It was a bad month until I finally switched to Levemir and that fixed my problem.
I ended up taking two shots of Lantus, about twelve hours apart, and splitting the dose about 60/40 , taking the smaller dose at night. That worked very well for me. Also, if I exercised or had a very active day I would have a snack at night for insurance. Since you’re not going high, you might want to eat a few carbs with some cheese or peanut butter that will keep those carbs releasing through the wee hours. This is the first time I’ve given advice rather than ask for it… so ask for second opinions. I was diagnosed in July and just went on the pump a few weeks ago.
With Lantus, you also need to take particular care that you inject subcutaneously (into the layer of body fat layer just below your skin). Lantus is a special mixture of insulin and other binders that form a kind of crystal in the body fat layer which then breaks down at a slow and predictable rate. If you inject lantus into muscle (or of particular concern a blood vessel), then the lantus may not form those crystals and may react just like a rapid insulin. There have been reports of people experiencing sudden drops and hypos from Lantus because of this. Have you been injecting in your abdomen? Do you pinch and inch?
I take Lantus in the morning so now I never wake up low.
Thanks, everyone, for your insights. I also take Humalog before each meal (being Type 1), so at least 4 shots a day, more when sick or high. One thing I don’t like is that you can’t mix Lantus and Humalog. Used Humalog and NPH for years, and at least it could be mixed, so only 2-3 shots a day.
Hi Don,
I use 7 or 8 units - it is amazing how unreliable the action is from day to day…very frustrating!
Check with your endo, but, in me Lantus “peaks” at about the 5 hour point, often leaving me to wake up to EMT’s and a bag o dextrose in my arm. I switched from 30 units at 9pm to 30 units at 9AM. Life is so much better now…
Thanks so much, Jason. That is what worries me. Do you also take Humalog?
I take Humalog before meals too. But putting Lantus in the morning was the best thing my endo ever did. No more tossing and turning in bed from lows or waking up and eating everything in the house to get back up.
Thanks, Kathyann. Do you take it at the same time as your am Humalog? Does it seem to cover you all night? Last question - do you just take more H if you want a bedtime snack to cover it?
Thanks so much. One of my biggest fears is NOT waking up in the middle of the night to treat a low and just slipping away. My husband sleeps so soundly, I know he wouldn’t wake up.
When I was on Lantus I had to switch my doses and times. I also split my dose as well. I cannot take a large amount of Lantus in the evening, Dropped all the time toooo low.
I then switched to Levemir…love it. No peaking at all. Lantus would peak on me in 5 or so hrs. Yeck.
Levemir is so much more steady than Lantus was, and no burn when injecting!
Good Luck.
I took Lantus, 4 units in AM and 6 units at bedtime. I would still have problems occasionally dropping overnight, I would also run out of Lantus before the 24 hours was up. Even with the split dose, I would go high the hour or two before the next injection. If I had a more active day, exercise, extra lawn work, maybe even just power cleaning of the house - anything that had me sit down at the end of the day with that “whew” feeling, I knew I needed to drop my evening dose by one unit, otherwise I would go low overnight. I switched to Levimar and didn’t have as noticeable lows or runouts, but still slightly.
I also used Humalog. Humalog shots always went in my belly and Lantus in my hips.
There is nothing worse than the overnight low!
I was taken off Lanuts about 3 years ago when I was hospitalized, because the hospital said they couldn’t get it. Their alternate was Levemir. They switched me to Levemir in the hospital and it was a fabulous change. I had never heard of Levemir before. Remember we are all different, so this was my experience. On Lantus sometimes it worked perfectly and other times I would wake in the middle of the night sitting on my kitchen floor eating something. Other times I would wake with food in my teeth with no recollection of eating. Since I switched to levemir, I at least wake up to eat. I take 10-12 units of Levemir in the morning and 6-8 units at 9pm.
In Gary Scheiner’s book Think Like a Pancreas, he quotes the time of Lantus as starting to work in 1-3 hours and lasting 20-24 hours with no peak. Officially there is no peak, but the book also says that some people have a peak at 6-10 hours. With Levemir, it starts in 1-2 hours and lasts 12-16 hours. I have read that Levemir lasts longer if you take higher doses. This is why it is hard to find literature about how long it lasts. I have had much better success with Levemir, b/c I need about 60% at night of what I need in the day. Lantus could not provide that for me. I tried morning and evening doses. Lantus was inconsistent for me. Levemir has been consistent. If you have questions for me, send me a message.
that’s not much. I used to get a predictable 30 pt drop overnight on 14 units and once I dropped to 11 units (eating less junk), the drop became completely unpredictable.
i take 32u at breakfast, and as lantus seems to only last about 21-22 hours in my system i practically never get night time lows (in fact i can’t recall when the last one was). I’ve found that lantus peaks at about 2hrs for me, so i have to take less novorapid at breakfast, but other than that lantus works great for me
Hi Painter
I used Lsntus for 7 months about 3 years ago. It put me into 6 insulin shock comas while I was asleep. Sometimes I took it during the day, I tried taking it in the morning and I also tried taking right before bed. I ALWAYS plummetted to the 40s and 30s during my sleep. I got to the point that I was setting an alarm to wake me up in the middle of the night so that I could check my BG and then eat something.
I couldn’t live like that.
I am using Levemir for the past 3 years. Though, now I’m starting to peak overnight with that. But, I’d rather peak during sleep than going into those stupid comas. There’s only so many times a girl can be woken up by an EMT, muscles spasming from the seizures and IVs coming out all my veins. It got to the point that the paramedics would wake me up, then I’d tell them I didn’t need to go to the hospital. I knew how to take care of the after effects on my own eventually.
If you’re experiencing this- GET OFF LANTUS NOW. Don’t let your doctor tell you it’s anything else.
Try taking it at other times of the day, and if you are still experiencing lows at night- switch basals.
I sleep beside my fiance. He is the one who called the ambulance those times. If he wasn’t there, I don’t know what would have happened. I can’t imagine surviving something like that.
Thanks, Everyone. This is exactly why I came to this board. My Dr would insist there was no peaking of Lantus. It is so uneven for me - sometimes I would have a snack at bedtime (unless I was high), and then I was high in the morning. The nights I didn’t snack hoping my BG would stay about the same, I would go low. It has come to the point that I dread bedtime because I can’t decide how much to take, whether to eat, etc. I don’t take much - 7, 8, or 9 units. However, if I don’t take anything, I will be high (shamefully, there have been nights when I just forgot - thought I had taken it). It just becomes so routine to inject that I do it almost without thinking - a problem. I have been a Type 1 for 53 years and am thankful to be alive and have all my parts (smile), but it overwhelms me sometimes. Again, thanks for all your support. It means the world to me. When I was younger, no one talked about this disease.
Hugs to you all!!!