How low can you go (at night, without insulin/ related meds) - poll

[Sax]

I feel my HbA1C numbers maybe flatter me a little, as when using a CGM I see that I get low values at night. I'm regularly seeing 3.5 -4 range at night for periods of under 1 hour. Does this then make daytime values look better in comparison to others than they are, or is this just my paranoia?

So I'm curious at to what other people see on CGM's as the range they get down to when asleep, especially those in remission or in good control.

Poll notes:
- As most medication save Metformin interferes with the body's natural insulin / glucose regulation and could cause false lows, I'm looking to exclude them.
- Also note range is lowest seen for 30 mins plus regularly at night; as I'm sure a lot of other people also see weird meter dips from presumably leaning on it, or random weird results from time to time.

Edit; Forgot to state the units, DOH. mmol/l.

 

[In Response]

Do you test your 3.5 - 4 that you get at night?
i wonder if they are real lows or compression lows.

As for how low would I go without medication , as someone not producing any insulin of my own, I am not willing to test this. I suspect, in the absence of injected insulin, my BG would be at least in the teens maybe higher. Definitely, above 7.

 

[LittleGreyCat]

I am a little sceptical about my Libre 2 results as it regularly reads low compare to my Abbott Freestyle Lite.
However I do see overnight lows from time to time.
So much so that I have turned the alarm off as it kept waking me up when I was fine.

I tend to have a steady drop in BG in the afternoon and evening, probably encouraged by the evening wine, which bottoms out in the wee small hours.
I then get a steady rise until noon, when my BG starts to drop again.
This is more obvious when I am straying from the straight and narrow, presumably my pancreas chucking out extra insulin and my liver being too busy enjoying the alcohol to kick out a bit of glucose.

Edit: pretty sure these aren't compression lows. When I have those the BG drops like a stone and then goes right back up again immediately I move.

 

[Sax]

I don't believe the minimums I'm talking about are compression related as they occur too consistently in timing and for too long. I do see occasional, random dips and immediate recovery separate to that.

 

[EllieM]

I don't believe the minimums I'm talking about are compression related as they occur too consistently in timing and for too long. I do see occasional, random dips and immediate recovery separate to that.

I personally wouldn't be concerned by a dip to 3.5 were it not that the insulin I take means that it could go lower. The report linked below shows that non diabetics can go that low ...

Continuous Glucose Monitoring Profiles in Healthy Nondiabetic Participants: A Multicenter Prospective Study

Use of continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) is increasing for insulin-requiring patients with diabetes. Although data on glycemic profiles of healthy, nondiabetic individuals exist for older sensors, assessment of glycemic metrics with new-generation CGM ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

And my dexcom g6 regularly under reads slightly at night....