My morning readings.

Can only speak for myself but I get the same effect if I lie in, and I found that eating breakfast at the same time (7:30 - 8am) each morning seems to stop me going higher than I otherwise would. Its a bit of a bother when all you want to do is lie in after a bad night, but its the only way I know of.

I have been experimenting with this very thing over the past few months. I always get up early so conditions are favourable but I always get up about the same time so one days readings can be compared with another.

If I get high morning readings I make sure that I do not eat any carbs after about 4pm. It might take a few days to get a good result but if I do this my reading goes down anything between 0.2 and 0.5 each day. I have carried out this experiment five times now and always get similar results.

Since June my highest reading was about 8 and my lowest was 4.8 (even I did not believe that one but 5.1 is often achieved).

The most recent development since I have a review coming up next month is that I have got the readings low and have kept them there for a week or more. Funny thing is I cracked and had wine and chocolate and the numbers have now stuck low. Yesterday I had a bottle of wine, half a bar of whole nut and even a sausage in a (home baked) bun. This mornings reading was 5.3.

It might not work for everyone but I am off in a few minutes to get some more wine ...........whoopee.

zolabud said:

I have just been looking at my readings and have figured out that when I am up early my readings are around 5 and when I sleep in and take my reading at 9-10 am they are 7 odd. This morning it was 7.9.

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That is why they do a fasting blood plasma test. If your last meal is at say 8pm, your BG will decline during the night and, when it gets to about 4.0 your body will top your blood up. The basis of FPG is to measure how quickly it goes back into the normal range. Although readings above 7.0 are indicative of diabetes, they are at the lower end of the scale. Mine was 9.8 and 8.8 and many people are in their teens. My GP did not have a problem with my wish to try diet and exercise when he saw my readings. They can't make you take the pills anyway and since yours are, for a diabetic, so low, they really ought to be encouraging you to avoid meds.

Further to my post above I pushed the boat out yesterday to see if my fasting blood sugar level went up. I had two bottles of wine, the other half of the Cadbury's whole nut bar and two buns each with a sausage in. This was in addition to a normal lunch earlier in the day.

My fasting reading was 5.7 which means it has gone up but not by much. I don't know if this is a temporary state of affairs but something seems to have mended itself. Today I will behave myself.

Hands up anyone that believes that.

I'm the opposite...I've found that the earlier I get up the higher I am?? I'm usually always between 7 and 8.5mmol every single morning when I get up around 7am.. Got up at 6am the other day and was 9mmol!! Then this morning, got up later at 8:30am and was 6.2mmol which is the lowest I've had in months! Didn't eat anything out of the ordinary last night nor did I go to bed at a different time to normal so I've no idea why this happens? Unless my glucose dump is quite early and so the later I sleep in the longer my body has to break it down hence the lower number? That's the only thing I can think of but I wish I could stop the dawn phenomenon, I've tried everything and nothing works :-( (apart from alcohol which obviously distracts my liver from its annoying glucose dumping but short of becoming an alcoholic, which is probably not a good solution, I'm out of ideas!)


Diagnosed with GD in 2010, Completely disappeared postpartum. Re-diagnosed December 2012 with type 1.5 diabetes, age 26, BMI 22 currently controlled by only Metformin, 500mg twice a day.

Squire Fulwood said:

Further to my post above I pushed the boat out yesterday to see if my fasting blood sugar level went up. I had two bottles of wine, the other half of the Cadbury's whole nut bar and two buns each with a sausage in. This was in addition to a normal lunch earlier in the day.

My fasting reading was 5.7 which means it has gone up but not by much. I don't know if this is a temporary state of affairs but something seems to have mended itself. Today I will behave myself.

Hands up anyone that believes that.

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It might be the wine as alcohol has a reducing effect, unless it is a sweet drink with excess sugar.

I prefer to take the 2 hour after meal readings as my early morning readings are between 4.9 and 5.7. My after dinner readings are usually in the 6s unless I push the boat out and then they are maybe 7.3 so yes, I do believe it. But, continue to check and don't push it too far, else it'll drift away and you'll have one foot in the boat and one foot on shore.

The annoying thing about diabetes is that you never know what is actually going on. Are you really producing more insulin or have you just become more sensitive to that insulin that you do produce? What we hope for is that that those metabolically inhibited beta cells are suddenly unblocked and working again, but there is no real way of telling. But one thing is certain, low readings are good, whatever the actual cause. And long may they continue to be low.

Yorksman said:

But one thing is certain, low readings are good, whatever the actual cause. And long may they continue to be low.

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Thank you for your good wishes. I am able to report that after not having any alcohol yesterday my morning reading was 5.3 today.

Although I don't really know why this technique works for me I have proved a number of times that it does. With or without alcohol.

I shall just count my blessings at such good fortune. I wonder what my Hba1c will be next month.