Low BG at night, high in the morning - good or bad?

[katereiki]

I am familiar with the term 'dawn phenomenon' where blood glucose levels are higher in the morning than the night before. I regularly try to keep my BG low at night and fast overnight for 12 hours. However at present I am seeing higher morning BG levels than I would like. For example I went to bed with a BG of 5.1 and the next morning it was 6.4.

So I guess this glucose is coming from my liver. I am wondering if this is a good thing or not?

Also if I go to bed with a reasonably normal BG of say 7.2 and the next morning it's still above 6 is there something different I should be doing?

I also find it confusing that sometimes I go to bed with a higher BG and the next morning it's down to 5.2!

Any ideas welcome!

 

[LittleGreyCat]

I don't think you are doing anything wrong or need to do anything different.
These kind of results are just your body coping with overnight fasting with different starting levels.
The ways of diabetes are sometimes deep and mysterious.

Sometimes overnight levels can be influenced by what you eat during the day, and what is stored both in your liver and in your gut.

I get a steady BG rise from around midnight to noon, then a steady drop.
No real idea why.
Glucose from my liver seems to win in the morning then insulin knocks it back in the afternoon.

Everyone is different.

 

[Roggg]

What you see is very normal, and seems to be more the rule than the exception with T2 diabetics. I've tried to find the answer to the "is this good?" question, and have given up. Some people believe that eating late in the day is better because they wake up with lower readings in the morning. Other people suggest the rise from eating in the evening outweighs the lower morning readings, so it's worse not better overall. Some people claim that the elevated morning level is ridding your body of excess glucose and/or working towards lowering dawn phenomenon.

I have looked and have not found any firm science indicating whether eating to reduce DP is better for reversing insulin resistance than "letting it ride". For me this extends to longer fasting periods, as I also do some IF. I am now taking the position that as long as my A1C is improving, I wont worry so much about the little details, like whether I wake up at 6.9 or 5.5. If anyone has seen any actual studies on this, I would love to see it.

 

[katereiki]

Thanks for your replies. Yes I have been trying to work out whether it's better to eat minimal carbs in the evening which often results in higher levels in the morning but not always, or to eat a small amount of carbs in the evening and perhaps a little higher in the morning. At present I don't seem to be able to control it either way: eat more carbs in the evening and sometimes it's high and sometimes low. Eat less carbs in the evening and it does not necessarily result in lower morning levels. The other factor is sleep - if I eat less carbs in the evening I am often hungry when I go to bed and don't sleep as well. Which can result in more desire to eat (the result of higher ghrelin homone levels I believe). So do I aim to sleep well or potentially have lower BG in the morning? Am I actually releasing glucose from my liver if I do or is it coming from somewhere else? Oh what to do?!

 

[LittleGreyCat]

I'm just upping my exercise levels which result in a massive spike in BG when exercising in the morning.
It seems at the moment (need more data) that this is matched by a lower DP.
Could be that I've reduced the stored glucose in the liver so there is less to dump.
Then again, is a big peak when exercising better than a smaller peak when not?
Who knows.

 

[bulkbiker]

I am familiar with the term 'dawn phenomenon' where blood glucose levels are higher in the morning than the night before. I regularly try to keep my BG low at night and fast overnight for 12 hours. However at present I am seeing higher morning BG levels than I would like. For example I went to bed with a BG of 5.1 and the next morning it was 6.4.

So I guess this glucose is coming from my liver. I am wondering if this is a good thing or not?

Also if I go to bed with a reasonably normal BG of say 7.2 and the next morning it's still above 6 is there something different I should be doing?

I also find it confusing that sometimes I go to bed with a higher BG and the next morning it's down to 5.2!

Any ideas welcome!

A lot will depend on how long you have been diagnosed and what steps/medications you are taking to combat your T2.