I’ve always had a huge problem with morning sugar spikes. I get up at 5 am to go to work and don’t get to eat breakfast until 7 am. between these times my sugar usually spikes between 30 an 150 points! average is probably about 80. It’s so frustrating. I hate to take an extra injection at 5 because I take one at seven. especially because I never know how much it’s going to spike and I sometimes go low. Snyone else have this problem to? If so any suggestions? Thanks a bunch.
I have about 1 hour between getting up and breakfast. I noticed that the second I get up my bg starts rising. Since I got my OmniPod I bolus 1 unit when I get out of bed. Now my bg is very stable between getting up and breakfast.
You mean does anyone else have Darn Phenomenon? Just about everybody I know. The way I understand it is that everyones liver works overtime in the early hours of the morning clearing the insulin in your blood, so many people find that their basal insulin demands are increased early in the morning. Then when you wake up, you will naturally release blood sugar from your liver to help you wake. All this adds up to give you your highly coveted spikes.
It says in your profile, you are on a pump, but I presume that is outdated. If you were on a pump, the answer is easy, just program an increased basal in the early morning hours. With an injected basal you have fewer options. One thing you might consider is splitting your basal and take like 60% in your nightly dose, tho this works better with Levemir which has less than a 24 hour response. Another thing you could do is instead of spliting your basal, go get some NPH and use that to split/increase your overnight dose. In either case, you need to make sure that any increased overnight basal does not drive you low. You only need a bit of insulin on board to suppress the darn phenomenon. If you do go low at 1-2 am, you may find a late night protein or complex carb snack helps.
In the end, you may just find that you have to inject to suppress the DP. I know it sucks, who wants to take another injection.
Dawn Phenomenon has already been mentioned, but an additional thing about it is that it KEEPS raising bg UNTIL you eat. The reason it is there at all is to get us started in the morning since we haven’t eaten yet… so eat!
Someone I’'ve known ate a cracker before getting out of bed to forestall it. She found that it wasn’t only Dawn coming on, but going vertical as well, at least for her, maybe not everybody. That’s what the energy was supposed to be for, getting you through changing states from sleep to actually standing up for the first time.
Following that with some sort of breakfast, and as low carb as possible, starts the day right. They aren’t kidding when they say “breakfast is the most important meal of the day.”
Benjamin I thought I was the only one in the world with this but its so annoying I wake up every morning with readings of higher then 10 and its that makes it so hard to get out of bed believe me.I wake up eat breakfast take a huge dose because I have no idea what else to do.
Spoke to the nurses told me I might be going low during the night but I know thats not the case so I would wake up at 3 am for couple of night but I was right on target but I go back to sleep wake up next morning high as hell. Now I have increased my levemir but no luck just want to sort it out as most the day is ok just the morning.
So I know how you feel but if your on the pump U just need to take a little more in the morning thats the best thing I heard to control the morning spikes.
Same problem here. Before I knew what to do, I didn’t eat breakfast when fasting numbers were high, or when I was too rushed to eat. That resulted in higher BG. I test, inject (MDIs) & eat almost immediately upon waking up.
I eat almost no carbs at breakfast to keep Dawn Phenomenon & further spikes at bay. It’s tamed the numbers. My morning ratio is also small.
It’s possible that taking a big dose first thing in the morning is the wrong way to go. You are trying to lower your glucose when your liver is pumping out glycogen (which becomes glucose right away) in order to get you able to go to breakfast… which can create a low later on, once your somewhat later breakfast is all gone and there’s to much insulin there for the second half of the morning.
You may find the whole thing changes when you eat as soon as you can after getting up, or maybe even eat a cracker BEFORE getting up, and taking your shot later. Just don’t take as much or it could catch up (down?) with you later.
BTW, you mentioned you got a 10, which I’m sure was measured in mmol/liter, not to be confused with the practice in other countries (such as the USA) where we measure in mg/dl. Almost lost a friend the other day when he was tested in his hospital bed at 10… mg/dl. That’s 1/18th of your ten, the second lowest reading I’ve ever hear a diabetic ever recovered from. He woke up, but it took 24 hours, and doesn’t seem to have suffering too terribly from it. Mind you he DID wake up in the ICU, after going to sleep in a regular room.
Just like everything else with diabetes somebody needs to be different. Anything we say is normal or always happens really need to say it USUALLY happens.
Dawn Phenomenon is common to the majority of people, diabetic or not. Those of us who seem to go highest first thing in the morning tend to find it best to treat accordingly, but if you never do that you’re once of a select few. No way to know why, perhaps something in your ancestry changed what others have inherited, for whatever reason? Never will know, and that’s pure speculation BTW.
So although I did not mention eating, I have to really support everyone here. I down a protein shake first thing in the morning, I mean almost right after my feet hit the floor. I don’t know whether this works for everyone, but it works for me. My theory is that actually eating generates a hormonal response which arrests the darn phenomenon. I mean it makes sense, bariatric surgery can “cure” type 2 diabetes and Byetta works by increasing insulin secretion “in response to eating.” I will continue to rise if I don’t eat, so I eat and it seems to stop the DP.
And then there is my backup theory. That DP is the work of aliens.
Now I have increased my levemir but no luck just want to sort it out as most the day is ok just the morning.