Why is My Blood Sugar Level High at Night?
When you go to sleep, your blood sugar reading is 110, however when you get up in the morning, it has shot up to 150. Why does this take place?
High Blood Sugar Level at Night
To understand how blood glucose levels can rise overnight without your consuming anything, we need to look at where glucose originates from — and where it goes — while we sleep.
Throughout the day, the carbs we eat are absorbed into glucose and taken in into the blood stream. Some of this glucose goes to the liver, where it is kept for later use.
During the night, while we are asleep, the liver launches glucose into the bloodstream. The liver acts as our glucose storage facility and keeps us provided until we eat breakfast. The amount of glucose being used is matched by the amount of glucose being released by the liver, so blood glucose levels should stay consistent.
Mayo Clinic doctor Maria Collazo-Clavell, MD, says prevent carbohydrates at bedtime. She likewise says an insulin pump can assist a lot. You can program it in advance to increase your insulin when the dawn phenomenon starts to begin. You might need to inspect a few middle-of-the-night levels to find out when the phenomenon begins for you, or if you are going too low.
What Is The Dawn Phenomenon?
A rise in blood sugar level between approximately 3 A.M. and the time you get up is called the “dawn phenomenon.”
The liver is expected to launch just enough glucose to replace what is being used, and insulin works as the messenger to inform the liver how much is enough. However if there’s insufficient insulin (just like type 1 diabetes), or if there’s sufficient insulin however it can not communicate its message to the liver (as with type 2 diabetes), the liver starts to release glucose much too quickly. In addition, levels of hormones such as cortisol begin to increase in the morning hours, which can contribute to altered insulin level of sensitivity.
Mayo Clinic doctor Maria Collazo-Clavell, MD, says prevent carbohydrates at bedtime. She likewise says an insulin pump can assist a lot. You can program it in advance to increase your insulin when the dawn phenomenon starts to begin. You might need to inspect a few middle-of-the-night levels to find out when the phenomenon begins for you, or if you are going too low.
See also: Diabetes and Night Sweating
The outcome? Blood glucose levels increase. This is why blood sugar levels can increase in between the time you go to sleep and the time you awaken.
What Can You Do About It?
You may be able to make modifications in the timing of your meals, medications, or insulin injections to assist prevent dawn phenomenon. First, keep an in-depth record of what’s occurring in the evening and in the early morning, including your blood sugar levels, consuming habits, medications or insulin, and physical activity. Then, speak to your health care company or diabetes educator about modifications you can make to avoid dawn phenomenon.
Also read: Diabetes and Fatty Liver
It probably would assist to comprehend what’s going on in the mornings. The liver, which has kept excess glucose for just such a celebration, produces glucose into the blood stream as one of the mechanisms of waking the body up. Non-diabetics will have an accompanying insulin response. Not so the diabetic. In addition, the liver may not get the signal to stop disposing out glucose up until it lastly senses that it’s not needed – normally because one consumes something. So eating a little something with fat and protein first thing in the early morning might work.
Where does the liver get its stores? From the carbohydrates eaten previously. Its not the quantity of food per se, however the amount of carbohydrates. Some find that eating a lot of fats and really low carbs will deplete the liver of most of its stores. This is how I handle it. Others discover that a protein and/or fat treat during the night will lower FBG.
Something that experience will tell is that keeping daytime BG low and steady will, eventually, effect FBG. It might not, however, avoid the early morning rise of DP but, at least for me, it keeps the rise from going really high. Everyone’s body is various, so some experimentation remains in order.
My daughter’s insurance says a monitor is nonessential for my granddaughter. She had one for a while which avoided some scary moments. Anything we can do?