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Can lack of sleep make morning fasting level higher?

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JulieNicholson

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Hi. When I take my blood sugars two hours after my evening meal they are always in the 6 range. However even if I have nothing to eat after that when I take them first thing on a morning they are usually in the 7.8 area. I take metformin on a morning and night.
 
The question posed in the thread title, and the text of your post are quite different.

However I think a disturbed nights sleep will often have an adverse effect on your FBG.
 
JulieNicholson said:
Hi. When I take my blood sugars two hours after my evening meal they are always in the 6 range. However even if I have nothing to eat after that when I take them first thing on a morning they are usually in the 7.8 area. I take metformin on a morning and night.
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it would be really difficult to say for sure whether the lack of sleep or natural dawn phenomenon is causing the higher reading in the morning.
you could try a test just before bed to rule out a 4 hour post meal rise , and you could also try rising at around 3-4 am to see if your BG has remained flat from bedtime - or if a rise has already started ( dawn phenomenon )

hope this helps :)
 
I very often have little sleep and it doesn't (currently) appear to make the slightest difference to my morning level. Last night I had around 2 hours sleep and my reading when I went to bed at just after 1am was 5.9 and at 6.20 am it's 5.6.

Stressing over your lack of sleep rather than the actual lack of sleep could possibly cause a rise. But liver dumps (dawn phenomenon) are a more likely reason for higher morning levels. However there's nothing wrong with these - it's your body doing its job by providing a boost of glucose to provide energy for the coming day's activities.

If you are really interested in what's going on, and can afford the outlay, look into getting and using a Freestyle Libre and you can do some continuous (automatic) monitoring for a while. It can be quite illuminating!

Robbity
 
I am the opposite of Robbity as having a disturbed nights sleep does effect my readings , but as said I usually have a bad nights sleep because I am stressing over something and just having a bad nights sleep can also stress me out :(
 
As a symptom of RH, though no doubt of other blood glucose disorders,sleep is actually so important on the effects of blood readings. Also how you feel the next day.

When I get one of my weird, wonderful, vivid full Technicolor dreams.
I am usually knackered the next day and my bloods are usually at least a mmols higher than normal.

There is a study that I have read, (sorry, no link!) That the deeper you sleep, think third or fourth stage of your sleeping pattern, the better you feel and the better your bloods are the next day.
The more you have sleep deprivation, the worse you are. I know, I've been through it all.
 
I noticed that when I have insufficient sleep my fasting blood sugar would be very erratic. From what I understand the body is 'stressed' by a lack of sleep and releases a hormone called Cortisol. Cortisol can caused blood sugar to rise.
 
lack of sleep definitely affects me. I don't function too well all round and my blood sugars usually are harder to control after a bad night sleep. The problem for me though is my sleep is interrupted a lot so my doc doesn't consider I get good quality sleep which he views as an overall problem for everything I've got. That's why I now work part time hours because I literally can go ok for 2 days and on the 3rd day I'm not very functional and need a lot of rest. My situation is different though to what yours would be. But in answer to your question... lack of sleep for me does impact on my sugar levels.
 
I am a very bad sleeper, but I would say my levels would appear to be down to what I eat and the amount of Insulin. If it was all down to lack of sleep, I would be high all the time on awaking, I am type 1.
 
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