Type 1 Basal testing

beccaxo

Member
Messages
14
If my last snack with insulin was at 8.30pm, is it okay to set an alarm through the night at 1am/2am/3am/6am and 7am to test my blood sugars to check it my Basal insulin is correct?
 

j_c_boing

Member
Messages
5
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Hi Becaxxo

Good question. I would say it should be OK, however, please be aware that it possible (depending on what and how much you ate at 8.30) whatever you ate could still impact on your BS past 1am. In my experience, some fats in food can slow my digestion significantly (e.g I find pizza takes hours before to stops influencing BS). In addition, if you took any bolus insulin with the snack, that bolus will work for up to 5 hours.

Given your proposed timings, if you ate a low fat healthy snack it should be fully digested by the time of your 1am test (and any bolus dose will have stopped working by 12.30am). In this situation, I would take your 1am reading as the base level (I.e the level post snack/bolus), any movement in your readings after this would provide an indication whether your basal is broadly OK.

I would repeat these checks for a few nights though; to see if results are consistent. Don't make decisions based upon one nights results. As I am sure you know, many things can impact on BS including sleep quality, stress of the day, illness, any exercise that day etc.

Once you have a pattern identified, review basal from there. Hope this helps. These are just my thoughts based upon my experience. It took me years to get my basal right, still plays up occasionally (30 years type 1).
 
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beccaxo

Member
Messages
14
Hi Becaxxo

Good question. I would say it should be OK, however, please be aware that it possible (depending on what and how much you ate at 8.30) whatever you ate could still impact on your BS past 1am. In my experience, some fats in food can slow my digestion significantly (e.g I find pizza takes hours before to stops influencing BS). In addition, if you took any bolus insulin with the snack, that bolus will work for up to 5 hours.

Given your proposed timings, if you ate a low fat healthy snack it should be fully digested by the time of your 1am test (and any bolus dose will have stopped working by 12.30am). In this situation, I would take your 1am reading as the base level (I.e the level post snack/bolus), any movement in your readings after this would provide an indication whether your basal is broadly OK.

I would repeat these checks for a few nights though; to see if results are consistent. Don't make decisions based upon one nights results. As I am sure you know, many things can impact on BS including sleep quality, stress of the day, illness, any exercise that day etc.

Once you have a pattern identified, review basal from there. Hope this helps. These are just my thoughts based upon my experience. It took me years to get my basal right, still plays up occasionally (30 years type 1).

Ah wow thank you for your help! Yes it was a small healthy snack so should be okay..I hope hah! But yes I’ll definitely test over a few nights and see what happens, thanks!