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Early Morning Spike

Kerr1992

Kerr1992

Well-Known Member
Messages
123
Location
Broxburn, Scotland
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Dislikes
Diabetes...
Hi Folks,

for a while now, I've known that I can't really eat anything in the morning because it seems to cause rapid spikes that I can't get on top of. However, recently I have also noticed that pretty much within an hour of waking, my blood sugar levels can climb significantly without consuming anything (today I went from 8.1mmol to 11.9). My pump is already set on quite a high basal rate during the morning hours compared to other times of the day.

Does anyone have any tips for managing this? The doctor mentioned Dawn Phenomenon so I'm assuming it might be that.

Thanks in advance!
 
Hello @Kerr1992 Yes this is DP. However contrary to the belief of not eating anything, you should eat something upon rising to trick the liver that there is another energy source, otherwise your liver will just pump out glucose.

I find when suffering DP that even a few mouthfuls of a low carb product like full fat greek yoghurt can do the trick along with a correction bolus this should keep the graph from heading north.
 
A bit of exercise can help too, even a quick walk (dropping children at school for example) helps.
 
Hi Both,

Thanks for your comments. I'll test out both and see how I get on.

Its so frustrating. Especially when I see my average levels increasing which I know will impact my Hba1c. Its so weird that it seems to have come on all of a sudden and seems to be getting worse.

Thanks,
 
My experience agrees with @Juicyj - eating something will stop my BG from climbing in the morning.
I do however, need to bear in mind the insulin resistance that comes with DP so need to bolus earlier and have a higher insulin to carb ratio for breakfast.

Exercise definitely helps but, for me, it is intensive exercise the day before which can reduce the DP affect. Exercising in the morning without any bolus and any carbs will just cause my BG to rise further.

We are all different so it is definitely worth doing some trial and learning.
 
In Response said:
My experience agrees with @Juicyj - eating something will stop my BG from climbing in the morning.
I do however, need to bear in mind the insulin resistance that comes with DP so need to bolus earlier and have a higher insulin to carb ratio for breakfast.

Exercise definitely helps but, for me, it is intensive exercise the day before which can reduce the DP affect. Exercising in the morning without any bolus and any carbs will just cause my BG to rise further.

We are all different so it is definitely worth doing some trial and learning.
Click to expand...
I do cross-fit in the evenings but I haven't been as full on with it since coming back from my holidays in Sept which might actually tie in with how uncontrollable my mornings have been compared to before. It sounds like this DP might be multiple issues coming together into one big problem.

For example, I like a morning latte and usually have it with Soya milk to reduce the carbs but recently I've needed to take 3 units of insulin to cover it which is just mad considering there is like 5g of carbs in there.

I'll start including a morning dog walk. My issue is I'm very much a night owl so getting up early before work is going to be a massive shift in mindset haha!
 
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