HYPERS at night - pump user

Tranly

Member
Messages
15
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Pump
Dislikes
diabetes, stress
Hi!
I'm a type 1 pump user. I was diagnosed almost 6 months ago, and often feel so thankful for being with a pump now. I have been on pump therapy for 1,5 months and still struggling with managing my sugar with so little knowledge and experiences of the disease. Recently I have had some persisted problem which is having HYPERS at night. It really freaked me out to wake up 2 times at night to find my sugar 10. or 13. or even 22. something when I was fast asleep! The problem is that it happens at really unexpected hours, could be 11 pm, or 3 am, or whatever, and it happens more than once at night. If it happens at daytime then everyone knows we can make corrections to prevent it from damaging our bodies, but as it happens at night, I feel like I'm really helpless about it and out of control.
May I have some questions about this, please.
1. Is having hypers at night common for most type 1, esp. those who are on pump therapy?
2. Is this very damaging to our bodies? As I read last time that for a non-diabetic their sugar is very stable throughout the night.
3. I wonder what causes this to happen? As it can happen to me more than once. Like yesterday, I had 13. at 10pm (before going to bed), I made a bolus correction and programmed a temp basal rate. Later at 4 am I woke up to test again, and again it was 9.7! I made another bolus correction and adjustments to basal rates, and woke up at 5.1 this morning. I have read a thread on "dawn phenomenon" and "Somogyi effect", and have used the wisdom in it to apply to my case. But it involves dieting (low-carb and low-protein diets) and exercising (before going to bed) which I'm not sure can be applied to type 1 diabetic like me. I'm not suffering from obesity so do I need to go on a low-carb/low protein diet?
4. How to deal with this? Any advice on basal rates adjustment, dieting for type 1.. to improve the situation? I am not sure if I should increase or decrease my basal rates. As it depends on the nature of the problem whether it is somogyi effect or dawn phenomenon.
I'm really in need of some help. I don't have a good doctor with a heart here and still having to count on my own most of the time. I think I have already run out of option.
I am so grateful for any advice and help!!!
 

ElyDave

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,087
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Have you carried out any basal testing yourself to make sure your basal rates are set correctly?

This involves breaking the day down into segments of 8 hours or so. You need to have had no carbs or bolus within the last 5 hours or so and start with BG in yout target range. You then need to fast for that period, and test BG typically every 2 hours with test strips or using CGM. If teh BG remains stable (no rise or fall by mor ethan 1.7mmol/l) then your basal rate is good.

I'm doing this myself at the moment as I've got a new pump. So breakfast today was early at 05:15, basal testing will start at 11am, every two hours until 7pm during which I'll fast, no caffiene either (which is the harder part)

If you find significnat rise or fall you need to adjust the basal rate approx 2 hours before you noticed the rise/fall. Two books explain this very well, Pumping Insulin by John Walsh and Think Like A pancreas by Gary Scheiner

Hope that helps
 
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CarbsRok

Well-Known Member
Messages
4,688
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Dislikes
pasta ice cream and chocolate
You need to do some basic basal tests, then make adjustments as needed.
Also invest in the book pumping insulin by John Walsh. This book can be found on amazon. Worth it's weight in gold and known as the pumpers Bible.
 
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Tranly

Member
Messages
15
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Pump
Dislikes
diabetes, stress
Thank you so much!! I have never been told of any basal testings like what you said.. and I surely have never been going through any test like that, though they put the sensors on me twice during that first period of time. I don't have an idea of how to go on a test like that, and I'm not sure my doctor here understands what it is and is willing to help me. But I have bought the book and saw the section about basal testing and will go through it all first.
 
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Diamattic

Well-Known Member
Messages
678
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Hey!

The last youtube video i did was about how to test and set your basal rates, so maybe you should give it a watch? lol The link is in my signature!


Also - there is a possibility that you are eating to much of a low glycemic index food ? I get this with peanut butter. It has carbs and sugar (the brand i get anyway) and I can sit down and shovel it in and check my sugars in 1 hour and they are still fine, 2 hours later they are up just a bit but 4 or 6 hours later they are WAY up if i dont correct.

It would be plausible that you are eating something that has lots of carbs but is low GI and you don't see your sugars increase for hours afterwards when you dont expect it.


It sucks when you're asleep, and there isn't anything you can do unless you wake up and correct. Sadly, the short of it is yes its damaging to our bodies in the long run and should certainly try to be avoided. If you have normal sugars the rest of the day and your A1Cs come back under 7% you wont be seeing any damage in the short term but who knows what will happen when you're 70... Its best to fix haha
 
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CathytheChef

Active Member
Messages
33
Remember that sometimes this could be a hypo rebound - I'd try to test every 2 or 3 hours for a few nights to check you're not having hypos without knowing. I also get random mystery highs though with totally no explanation!
 
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Tranly

Member
Messages
15
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Pump
Dislikes
diabetes, stress
Hey!!!:)
I just cannot say thank you enough for the priceless gems I got from the book as I'm sitting here confused, not about my sugar, but about this miracle! .. I think I'm meditating on it haha..
Yesterday morning I woke up at 2 am and test, it was 6.4, and again at 6am, 4.2!! couldn't believe my eyes!! This is a miracle!
This Morning I woke up at 4 for a BG reading, and it was 6.5! Unbelievable!
My basal dose was too small compared to my boluses, my basal dose was something 30% of the TDD!! And it threw the whole thing off. And I was completely unaware of this problem! No one had spent a minute teaching me about this basic stuffs before! and I had to spend so much just as anyone else to be put on pump.
Another important thing I learned was adjust basal rates 4 hours before the rise/fall starts to happen.
This is nuts to me! :D
Thank you all so much! you're so cool!!:p:p ;) :-* HUGSSSSS!!!
 
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Type1Bri

Well-Known Member
Messages
881
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Pump
Dislikes
Highs and lows
Glad it is settling down. How did you get a pump so quickly?