Hi everyone, I’m looking for some tips to not be on my phone so much at nighttime and just to not be on the phone so much in general. I like to keep my phone in my back pocket and plugged up to my night stand so I can have close range for the Dexcom sensor I wear. Before I had the Dexcom I would plug my phone up in another room at night or plug it out if arms reach. Maybe I can still do that and set the alerts to less of a “tight range” at night but it’s still so tempting to have to have my phone in my pocket all of the time. I feel like I’m worse now with the addiction than ever having to constantly know where my phone is. Any tips at all are greatly appreciated!
2 Likes
Same here. I hate having it upstairs. I used to keep it down in my office. I miss the receiver, but no good with Omnipod 5 so…
1 Like
If you don’t have a pump, you can get a receiver - that’s what I use during the day and at night. It’s great! I keep it by my pillow.
Like this: Dexcom G7 Receiver | MyEHCS
2 Likes
I have a Mobi which is controlled exclusively by my phone making even more of a problem with phone addiction.
I like having a SugarPixel on my nightstand. It looks like a clock radio but instead of the time it has your blood sugar. It’s a little pricey (around $100, I think) but worth it to me. The phone is still there reading my Dexcom but I don’t have to pick it up in the night.
If you wore an Apple Watch and used a Dexcom G7, you could go back to having the phone in another room, but depending where your arm Is relative to your sensor you might miss readings.
1 Like
Can the Sugar Pixel be use with Libre 3+? Apple watch?
2 Likes
It works with Libra for sure. It uses the share function instead of. Direct connection to your phone.
So if you have WiFi at home, it will get the glucose data even if you are not home. Of course your phone needs to be connected to your sensor in order to get the data, but the. It’s put up to the share cloud and pushed to the sugar pixel.
Works the same when you share your data with another person, say your mother or wife or whatever.
The phone doesn’t really matter as long as it can run the dexcom or libre share ap.
Sugarpixel is just another entity you share with.
So yes you can leave your phone in another room as long as it can still pick up your sensor. Your sugar pixel can be anywhere that Wi-Fi is.
I have an old iPad that I share with and I leave it plugged in and on and sharing my dexcom. I also set it to never go to sleep.
This way I can just look up and see my glucose.
My family also always sees it even when I’m working or on a trip and this can be a double edged sword
2 Likes
You should look in to the SugarPixel. By customtyprone.com. It’s a display the show your glucose level in veering formats. You keep your phone with in normal blue tooth range. The phone sends your reading to the display via WiFi. I use two different displays. One for day and one for night.
It has its own verable alarms other then you phone. It even has a remote to go under your pillow that will vibrate
I’m a bit older and have long understood the problems of addiction. I read BF Skinner of operant conditioning fame in high school, and then later from a Behavioral Pharmacology course in college, I took away a deeper understanding of the reward systems that keep people addicted. The worst, as you might know, are intermittent reinforcement schedules, where the rewards, in this case responses and updates on your phone, are varying and inconsistent. It is not the drug per se that creates additction, but also how it is administered. Understanding this won’t solve your problem, but helps explain it.
I do have my phone charging next to my bed, as well as my iPad, but only reach for them if (1) I have a blood sugar emergency, or (2) I wake up in the middle of the night, have trouble getting back to sleep, and need to distract myself with fiction or games.
As for tactics I use to avoid getting on my devices at night:
Most important
- Set a schedule on your devices to turn all notifications off.
– Mine are off from 10 PM to 6 AM
– Dexcom will ignore this, and alert you if you go low - Use a smartwatch.
– One of the biggest benefits of having a smartwatch is not having to check my phone while in bed and/or sleeping. I can always just peek at my watch.
– Also, you can leave your phone in another room, and as long as it is close enough for Bluetooth, the watch will recieve updates
– Notifications need to be turned off here as well, but if you turn them off on the phone, the system will often do the same on the watch. - Don’t use your device while on other media.
– No, TV and phone, just one or the other
– No phone while in bed, except for emergencies
– This takes some discipline, and anyway, it’s bad for your brain
Secondary
- Set rules for bedtime to wind down
– Relax in the evening, use low-key or relaxing media, work out early, shower before bed and early enough that you can cool down, etc.
There are several solutions, the ones I use involve setting the volume level on everything to zero and just relying on my body to alert me 
Probably not recommended unless you are extremely sensitive to your BG like I am.
The best one for your situation is to use the Dexcom receiver. Insurance will pay for this and, since you are on the Dexcom, you shouldn’t end up paying anything more by the end of the year.
Do what you did before with the 'phone but turn the Dexcom receiver on (make sure it is still charged) at night and stick that on your nightstand, or on a thin piece of cotton suspended from the ceiling about five feet above your head. The Dexcom receiver will wake you up (along with every other living thing within about 50ft.)
1 Like
Sorry, I didn’t read the other replies. For some reason I didn’t even see them when I looked at your post! I just saw the original post(!) so I think there is a bug in TUD
I’m with @JamesIgoe on the principle but with @Allison1 on the practice. It’s not a pump that matters, its that the pump isn’t acting as the “receiver”. t:slim and Omnipod 5 and possibly others typically are; they are implementing hybrid closed loops which require continuous connection to both the pump and the sensor.
Tell us what you did! Even better, tell us how well it worked. Some of my solutions (through it against the wall and see if it sticks, or breaks) lack merit.
1 Like
I too use Phone And reciever. I use the reciever only in the car when my insurance companies saver driver program smacks me on the hand if I touch the phone.
Use the cars Bluetooth to receive incoming call. I make it a habit not to make calls while driving..
This is off topic but there is no way in hell I want my insurance company tracking me like that.
I have a pump ap and a dexcom ap and a sugarmate.
Even so I hate that insurers do that to anyone.
Ahh thank you!
That’s really cute too