• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Snack before bedtime ?????

A

ARG Cape

Member
Messages
10
Location
Cape Town
Dislikes
Fast Food
HI there ...

I have been told by a nurse that its important to have a snack before bedtime as it will not let your sugar spike in the morning

Is this true?

BUT most things say have your last meal by 8pm ....

Now I am so so so confused
 
I've never been told to snack before bed, unless I've been drinking alcohol. Depends what your levels are. Little point in making your BG high before bed just to avoid a temp high in the morning !


Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
 
All depends on levels before bed, if theres any qa insulin left. Also if you've done any excercise, heat. If 4~5 I usually have a small 10 carb snack, as I can drop 1~2 through the night. If you do experience a rise in the morning (dp) having a carb free protein snack can sometimes help without the spike before bed.

Sent from my GT-S5360 using DCUK Forum mobile app
 
brett said:
All depends on levels before bed, if theres any qa insulin left. Also if you've done any excercise, heat. If 4~5 I usually have a small 10 carb snack, as I can drop 1~2 through the night. If you do experience a rise in the morning (dp) having a carb free protein snack can sometimes help without the spike before bed.

HI Brett Thanks for the tip I understand it now ... I do think she should have explained it better .... So would some nuts be seen as a protein or a carb?
Click to expand...
 
Sent from my GT-S5360 using DCUK Forum mobile app[/quote]
mo1905 said:
I've never been told to snack before bed, unless I've been drinking alcohol. Depends what your levels are. Little point in making your BG high before bed just to avoid a temp high in the morning !

Hi Mo1905 ... thanks for the reply ... i am not totally sure what you mean ... "temp high n the morning" do you mean body temp ... room temp...
Click to expand...
 
ARG Cape said:
Sent from my GT-S5360 using DCUK Forum mobile app
Click to expand...
mo1905 said:
I've never been told to snack before bed, unless I've been drinking alcohol. Depends what your levels are. Little point in making your BG high before bed just to avoid a temp high in the morning !

Hi Mo1905 ... thanks for the reply ... i am not totally sure what you mean ... "temp high n the morning" do you mean body temp ... room temp...
Click to expand...
Sorry, I meant "temporary high". You wrote that eating a snack prior to sleeping prevents morning "spike". My point was, seems pointless to eat a snack when your blood glucose levels are fine. Otherwise, you are raising your levels just to avoid a rise in levels in the morning ? Hope that makes sense.
Mo


Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
 
I usually have 20 -30g snack around 10pm otherwise I go hypo during the night or wake with a huge high from having not woke up with a hypo. The DSN was surprised that I didn't need to take an extra injection for that amount, but she sees now that this is what works for me.
 
I've been diagnosed 10 years and rarely snack at any time. I use minimal edication and although sometimes my BG goes up very slightly, overnight. from 5.5 to 5.9 for example, I don't think a snack would prevent this. Currently I'm experimenting with Glucophage SR instead of my old Metformin. Still the same 500mg dose, just checking to see if it smooths out my readings. To this end, I've been checking a little more often and it seems to work.
It might be different for insulin users, but my T1 husband doesn't seem to spike in the mornings.[and doesn't have a bedtime snack unless his level is too low to go through the night.]
Hana
 
I can remember that Dr. Mike Smith who used to appear on the Jimmy Young prog always said that you should not eat after 8pm. The reason he said it was that if you are prone to reflux then eating will give you trouble.

I have read on here that some people eat before bedtime to avoid the dawn phenomena. I suppose it all depends on what you want to suffer from.
 
I find that if I have a natural yogurt and a few whole wheat crackers (Carr's Originals) that my BS levels are better in the morning and generally in the 5's otherwise with nothing before bed my levels can be around 7.


Diagnosed Type II 1998 1 x 80 mg Gliclazide, 4 x 500mg Metformin and 1 x 100mg Sitagliptin - HbA1c - 48 mmol/mol
 
Neil Walters said:
I find that if I have a natural yogurt and a few whole wheat crackers (Carr's Originals) that my BS levels are better in the morning and generally in the 5's otherwise with nothing before bed my levels can be around 7.


Diagnosed Type II 1998 1 x 80 mg Gliclazide, 4 x 500mg Metformin and 1 x 100mg Sitagliptin - HbA1c - 48 mmol/mol
Click to expand...

Hi Neil ... thanks for the reply that makes sense when I started my BS levels we at 7.2 and now its 6.2 in the morning... I have started having a small snack before bed usually an apple or pear or a high fibre cookie ...

I am hoping I can change things by loosing weight
 
That will help too certainly


Diagnosed Type II 1998 1 x 80 mg Gliclazide, 4 x 500mg Metformin and 1 x 100mg Sitagliptin - HbA1c - 48 mmol/mol
 
Thanks for all the replies ... I can now see how the 2 different ways of thinking have different benefits ... I guess I do not have the reflux problem really so I can just continue having a small snack before bed ...lol
 
Squire Fulwood said:
I have read on here that some people eat before bedtime to avoid the dawn phenomena. I suppose it all depends on what you want to suffer from.
Click to expand...

That's true. The dawn phenomena causes a dip in morning BG levels (and if you don't eat) a rebound hyperglycaemia. If you do eat you can avoid the original dip and not have a hypo. However as has been pointed out here and elsewhere it all depends on your diabetes


Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
 
John7956 said:
Squire Fulwood said:
I have read on here that some people eat before bedtime to avoid the dawn phenomena. I suppose it all depends on what you want to suffer from.
Click to expand...

That's true. The dawn phenomena causes a dip in morning BG levels (and if you don't eat) a rebound hyperglycaemia. If you do eat you can avoid the original dip and not have a hypo. However as has been pointed out here and elsewhere it all depends on your diabetes


Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
Click to expand...

As far as I'm aware the Dawn Phenomena has nothing to do with a dip in sugar levels, but the bodies release of hormones as we wake up in the morning.
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/blood-glucose/dawn-phenomenon.html
 
My nurse told me to eat before bed. I told her that isn't going to happen! I have a small snack (5g carb) if I'm under 6mmol/l, or 10g if I'm under 5mmol/l. She suggested a slice of toast, safe to say I have never eaten that much carb unless hypo!

If you are needing to eat before bed it would indicate that your basal is too high.

If course if you bolus an hour before bed you have to take into account the active insulin. For that reason I try to eat dinner at least 4 hours before bed so I don't risk hypo during the night
 
hale710 said:
My nurse told me to eat before bed. I told her that isn't going to happen! I have a small snack (5g carb) if I'm under 6mmol/l, or 10g if I'm under 5mmol/l. She suggested a slice of toast, safe to say I have never eaten that much carb unless hypo!

If you are needing to eat before bed it would indicate that your basal is too high.

If course if you bolus an hour before bed you have to take into account the active insulin. For that reason I try to eat dinner at least 4 hours before bed so I don't risk hypo during the night
Click to expand...

I have to disagree, or perhaps I'm the acceptation to the rule. At least two of the DSNs on different occasions have wanted to increase my basal by one or two units and/or recommended me eating less for supper. Following their advice has always resulted in night time hypos for me and they end up telling me to go back to what I was doing anyway. :wink:
 
All of my diabetic life using insulin, I've always eaten a small snack before going to bed as failure to do so would usually result in me having a fairly bad hypo somewhere between the hours of 2-3am.

I never realised why I needed to eat something until I started using a pump and discovered that my bg levels naturally dropped between the hours of midnight to 3am and then gently started to rise upwards so low bg levels are not always down to too much basal, it can be just because of the way the body changes its need.

For people who are prone to overnight hypos, testing bg levels at different times in the night will reveal what happens and depending on the results, the basal could possibly be injected with eve meal (about 6pm) instead of before bed, changing carb ratio for the evening meal because of the basal action or just eat a small carb snack and then monitor again to determine whether the changes made help out or not.
 
Hooked said:
John7956 said:
Squire Fulwood said:
I have read on here that some people eat before bedtime to avoid the dawn phenomena. I suppose it all depends on what you want to suffer from.
Click to expand...

That's true. The dawn phenomena causes a dip in morning BG levels (and if you don't eat) a rebound hyperglycaemia. If you do eat you can avoid the original dip and not have a hypo. However as has been pointed out here and elsewhere it all depends on your diabetes


Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
Click to expand...

As far as I'm aware the Dawn Phenomena has nothing to do with a dip in sugar levels, but the bodies release of hormones as we wake up in the morning.
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/blood-glucose/dawn-phenomenon.html
Click to expand...

I agree. I think my problem was that I did not word my response properly. I dip in the morning (about 4am) them dawn phenomena causes BG to rise. If I do eat the original dip doesn't occur and dawn phenomena BG increase does not have as much of an effect


Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
 
Hooked said:
As far as I'm aware the Dawn Phenomena has nothing to do with a dip in sugar levels, but the bodies release of hormones as we wake up in the morning.
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/blood-glucose/dawn-phenomenon.html
Click to expand...

I agree. I think my problem was that I did not word my response properly. I dip in the morning (about 4am) them dawn phenomena causes BG to rise. If I do eat the original dip doesn't occur and dawn phenomena BG increase does not have as much of an effect


Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
 
Back
Top