Living with type 1 diabetes is an adventure in its own right. Some days are downright wild while others are more sedate and somewhat boring – in the blood sugar department that is.
There is no better way to see exactly how wild a ride your body has experienced in the past 24 hours than by taking a gander at a continuous glucose monitor (in my honest opinion).
I receive many questions from readers. One that often comes up is this – “I go to bed with a normal blood sugar and I always wake up high, why is this?”
Overnight blood sugars can be a bit of a hassle, especially if you are parenting to them. Without a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) to give an overnight snapshot of your blood sugar levels, your level of overnight engagement must rise to collect more information. Yes, by that I mean- you need to wake up and check some blood sugars on yourself or your child.
One of the confusing aspects to morning high blood sugars is that a high may have resulted from an unknown low overnight. If you try to throw more insulin at your night it may not be the correction you are looking for. Highs may result from not enough basal insulin or perhaps your high fat dinner has had some lasting effects. The good news is that insulin adjustments can take care of these patterns once we establish a pattern.
See more on this blood sugar phenomenon - “The Somogyi Phenomenon in Type 1 Diabetes”
You can see on my CGM that I have been experiencing lows around midnight. I have noticed this pattern because my CGM wakes me up at midnight and I also see the trending on my CGM in the morning. Even though I did wake up at 81, it looks like my blood sugar rose to 180 with the juice I drank before settling back down.
If you are sleeping and not eating, drinking or exercising – overnight is an opportunity for great blood sugar control. If we spend nearly half of our life asleep, why not dial in those blood sugars as best as possible. Feasibly for a child this may be the prime time to live between the lines (on a CGM that is).