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Type 1 Blood Sugar Spikes In The Morning

•BethanyJayne•

Member
Messages
18
Hey all,

I have just joined this forum today and from what I can see it’s great to meet others who experience the same issues and help eachother get by with this annoying and horrible disease!

I was diagnosed last October 2018 and managing considerably well so far but am just wondering does anyone else experience high blood sugar/ spikes in their blood sugar in the morning first thing and after breakfast? If so what do you do to overcome these?

I started to worry I was having lows in the night and not recognising them... explaining the high BG but I didn’t have symptoms of this and have never experience a hypo at night... from what I am aware of anyway. Am I right in saying that I would definitely know about it? Or can these be missed if you’re a heavy sleeper? (Sorry if it’s a silly question)

Hope you all have a great weekend! X
 
My numbers are usually fine when waking up (testing before getting out of bed) but not anymore an hour later, even without breakfast. It's a variation of dawn phenomenon most commonly referred to as 'feet on the floor effect'. I inject for it before getting out of bed, which definitely isn't something you should attempt lightly. I fully agree with
Knikki said:
How to deal with it?

Well that depends on how confident you are with injecting insulin or changing doses, but as you are newly diagnosed I would contact your medical team or DSN first for advice.
Click to expand...

I worried about that for a while and have occasionally set my alarm to check at random times through the night and never caught a hypo. I've been using the Freestyle Libre for some time now which proves no nighttime hypo's for me, so no idea if they would wake me up.

It would be very helpful if you filled out your profile, especially type of diabetes and medication, as it's very relevant in answers to questions!
•BethanyJayne• said:
Hope you all have a great weekend! X
Click to expand...
Same to you!
 
@.Bethanyjayne. Welcome! Just to say, no silly questions around here. Yes these morning issues can be a problem for many people. Combinations of dawn phenomenon where the Adrenalin rushes in to start waking you up. Which makes sugar levels rise. Foot on the floor, again Adrenalin as you start moving. And just a higher level of insulin resistance in the morning. As it is early days in your journey, working with your health team you can start to address this. However, I would perhaps set your alarm and test in the early hours, just to rule out a low level you are unaware of. You can then cross that off the list.
For me, I eventually dropped my lovely shredded wheat and cold milk breakfast and went for berries and Greek yoghurt. No more than 10 carbs worth. This helped as I wasn’t exacerbating the problem. Even now I take a lot more insulin in the morning than I do at the other end of the day. Wearing a Libre has also given me a bigger insight into what is actually happening.
I am sure you will gain a lot from being on this forum and get lots of different ideas from people with many years experience of this unpredictable disease.
Oh and come and join in with us on Type 1’stars R Us for every day, sometimes bonkers, chat and support.
 
I have major dawn phenomenon, which means it rises before you wake up because of hormone release. Mine usually happens between 5:30-6 am. If it doesn't increase then, then it does after I get up, feet on the floor. But usually it's before I even wake.

A pump turned out to be the best way for me to control it as I have my insulin settings really high for about 2 hours starting at 5:30. I have a Dexcom CGM too so if it chooses on one of the rarer occasion to happen later it will alarm and wake me that I am dropping and I can temp lower my insulin. Most people on shots deal with it with a shot first thing upon arising.

Be aware this usually causes insulin resistance for a few hours after you get up. I just don't eat in the am anymore as it's so hard to control for me. 5 carbs and insulin and and I'll still shoot up to 160 and not want to come down. So I just don't eat in the am until about 11 as I am fine by then. But I'm retired now so that's easy.
 
Hi @Bethanyjayne, and welcome to the forum, a nicer part of having T1!
I have feet on the floor syndrome, but it’s not always predictable, and it seems to depend on what I ate for the evening meal and what’s gone on during the night,. If I’ve had to correct a high, anything above 8, and have brought my blood sugars down to near normal or below, then the spike will occur much later, not until after breakfast. If I’ve been smooth sailing during the night then the spike will begin before breakfast. T1’s not simple and it’s taken me a while to learn how my own reactions to different carbs and insulins affect blood sugars. And it’s still easy to get it wrong! I have found, though, that if I wake with blood sugars that are 6 or below, it helps to head off the spike if I inject for breakfast plus a unit or two for feet on the floor and then eat when blood sugars begin to fall. This strategy usually helps to avert a spike. My personal problem is that I then have to keep an eye on blood sugars for the next hour in case it’s one of those days when I need a higher dose of insulin for feet on the floor and the unit or two just hasn’t held it off. It could be that other factors have affected me and made my body think it’s going to need extra energy. It’s a real pain if this happens I’ve been driving somewhere, or have got distracted.
Like @ANTJE, our lovely European member, I’ve only been able to see better how it all works since I started using the freestyle libre. I also agree that a few more details would help as insulins have varied action times and it’s hard to know whether you’re experiencing ‘foot on the floor’ or the end of an insulin’s active period.
You seem to be very clued up about how to monitor your own condition, and very level headed about seeking answers, which is fantastic. It’s only been seven months since your diagnosis and you’re already very aware of the ways current blood sugars can be influenced by preceding ones. I’ve had the lovely T1 passenger for nearly fifty years now but I think I’ve learned more from this forum, and the freestyle libre, in the last couple of years than I did in the previous forty-seven plus.
It’s such an individual, often quirky condition, with so many ways to fine tune, that as @becca59 says, no silly questions around here!
 
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Thank you @Knikki

Hello, welcome!
I think everyone experiences the liver dump at some point whether it is feet on the floor or during the early hours of the morning. You could look at it both ways - if you're on bolus/basal regime, you can check your basal is doing okay by doing the basal testing. Or if you're like me changing basal doesn't do anything to combat high morning levels or spikes, I get up a few hours before it happens and correct. But please contact your diabetes team about it.
Some other diabetes who are more experienced have their profiles set on their insulin pumps to counteract the morning spike.
Since you said you're doing considerably well, I don't think you'd have any problems with symptoms.
 
@Knikki @Antje77 @becca59 @marie2 @Fairygodmother @MeiChanski

Thank-you so much for your all of you help! I really do appreciate it & I hope you all have a wonderful day. I’m definitely going to be taking on some of these tips. Like you say, diabetes is very individual and it takes a while to get to grips with it all. I feel very humbled by your caring approach. It’s nice to not feel alone in it all.

Although we all suffer with diabetes and it’s rubbish sometimes... I keep a positive outlook on it all and if anything when I was diagnosed and still to this day I am just grateful that it wasn’t anything worse. I actually feel very luck to be living a healthy lifestyle, compared to some people who have it worse than you and I.

Not sure if I have tagged everyone correctly but hopefully you received my thanks to you all.

Beth x

 
Hi @Bethanyjayne
Warm welcome to the forum.
 
Morning and welcome - can’t add much to the very excellent info the others have given you, but it does sound exactly like dawn phenomenon and foot on the floor. Before I got a pump I used to have to set an alarm for about three am and chuck in a couple of units to head off the DP, and even with a pump still have to take a little as soon as I see a rise just after getting out of bed. I’ve got my pump set to give me that dawn dose as it’s consistent and I can be proactive with it. The FOTF is another beast entirely as it depends on when I wake up, whether I’m getting ready to go to work, if I’m ruching, that kind of thing. I can only be reactive to that and often don’t manage to catch it as it surges so quickly. It’s a constant challenge!
 
No problem, have a nice weekend. I'd say T1 diabetes in general is quite complex, anything can contribute to horrible BGs but you're not alone on this journey. As some diabetics have said document everything, try and identity any patterns, speak to your diabetes team and see what can be done to solve it.
 
As @MeiChanski sats, log everything while you work out what’s going on and how to solve it - food, insulin, activity, time of the month, how you feel... there are over 40 factors that can affect our levels! I’ve used an app called MySugr for many years now, and it really helps highlight patterns and issues.
 

It doesn’t like being simple does it! Thanks for your comments though
 

That infographic is really useful! Great - thanks for showing me that.

It’s like a never ending challenge aha - you get it right one day and the next day can be completely different! ‍
 
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