Intrigued, and perplexed

[peony50]

Hello all,

I have heard of dawn phenomena and expect this is what this was,but have one question to,ask more experienced people, first if I give a quick picture of what occurred:

Blood reading on going to bed 10.3. I then had 14.5 at 4am, 11.7 at 5.30am, 10.4 at 6.30am and then 7.6 at 8.30am.

The question is, I am happyish with 7.6 as for me this is a good reading on waking, but is it normal to wake up so often in the night needing the bathroom, which I wonder if it is linked to blood sugars? (Don't usually take blood readings on waking during night).

Many thanks.

 

[Sirmione]

OK those night time readings are much higher than I would accept, what did you have to eat the night before? Some complex carbohydrates such as whole grains take hours to hit the blood as glucose and when they do can raise the BGL for an extended period.

 

[Bluetit1802]

I wake up twice during the night with a full bladder, and am also bursting when I get up. But after wearing a Libre sensor I noticed small rises at the times I had to get up. I put this down to my liver dumping glucose because (a) my bladder required energy and (b) getting out of bed and lurching to the bathroom required energy. After returning to bed and falling asleep again, the levels go back down until the next time.

In my case the needing the loo is not due to high blood sugars as I am in the low 5s all night. It is more to do with my drinking a lot of water during the evening.

I suggest your rises during the night are a combination of liver dumps due to getting up and the result of what you ate the previous evening. Too much protein can cause this as it takes a long time to convert to glucose in addition to slow release carbs.

 

[Mep]

looking at your night time figures... there's 3 possible scenarios.

1) either you're eating a high GI carb snack (eg. refined foods) and your sugar drops quick after you go to bed to hypo levels and your liver dumps glucose before 4 am to bring your sugar to the 14.5 and then tapers back down after that.... or;
2) You are eating a complex carb snack (eg. wholegrain bread) that is too high a portion before bed and your sugar slowly rises over night to the peak of 14.5 at 4 am and then tapers off.
3) Another possibility is it could be your pain level as I notice in your signature you have fibromyalgia. Does this affect your sleep at all? I find for myself that my sugar levels fluctuate with my pain levels and if my pain level is high, so is my sugar level, blood pressure, and heart rate at times. I often find on bad pain level days I also have high sugar levels. I can eat the exact same meals and have the exact same insulin dosages on another day when my pain level is lower and my sugar levels will be within normal range. Pain stresses your body.

You really have to find what the reason is to be able to get better control.

My endo advised me to go to bed on 8.... that seems to work well when I achieve that. But everyone is probably different and also I'm on MDI insulin treatment which you may not be.

I wish you the best.

 

[Brunneria]

Hi,

I see you are T2, diet only, so you don't have to worry about going to bed on too low blood glucose (unless you have a history of hypoglycaemia?)

There is something that happens to us when our blood glucose rises above the 10-11ish mmol/l. The body detects that we have too high glucose in the blood, and it activates the kidneys to start filtering the glucose out and dumping it out of the body in the urine. Since we can't wee pure glucose, the kidneys produce extra urine to flush the glucose out.

This mechanism is why diabetics are known to drink a lot, and urinate a lot. But it is worth remembering that for most of us this mechanism only happens when our blood glucose is too high, and rises about 10-11. If you keep your blood glucose under control, then the endless widdling comes under control too!

I would suggest that (unless high levels of 10+ are usual for you) you had something to eat during the evening that drove your blood glucose so high. Maybe reduce the portion size, or cut back on carbs overall.

IF you are testing, are you testing your meals (before and at 2 hours)? That is a very efficient way of identifying what individual foods do to blood glucose. The recommended level of blood glucose at 2 hours after food is below 7.8 ish, I believe. But we always have to bear in mind our starting point too.

If I need a pre-bed snack, I go for some cheese, or nuts, or even a small bowl of berries and cream. They don't seem to raise my blood glucose more than a smidge.

Hope that helps.