When we drink alcohol, a few things happen
- many of the drinks such as beer and cider contain carbs. So the carbs will cause our BG to rise
- our liver find alcohol toxic to our body so concentrates on getting rid of the alcohol and avoids setting it free. As a result, when we drink a lot, the liver stops dripping glucose but we have still taken basal insulin to handle this background glucose. Therefore, our BG will drop.
I am a tad older than you but still enjoy my drink so I have adopted the following approach
- take insulin for the carbs in the first pint and a half. I am small and female (and old) so my tolerance is probably less than yours.
- stop taking insulin for any further drinks
- reduce my overnight basal
Some people also eat carbs (e.g. a slice or two of toast) before bed with no insulin after a night out.