• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Sudden High Blood Glucose mornings/Sudden Low at Night

LionChild

LionChild

Well-Known Member
Messages
302
Location
Birmingham UK
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Dislikes
whisky
Can anyone kindly offer any explanations about the following ?

I would be very grateful..

I have had type 1 diabetes since 2019 and my last a1c was a very healthy 39. I don't think it has ever been more than 43, and I have not have excessive numbers of hypos, and it is very rare for my blood glucose to be more than 10.



However, recently my blood glucose has gone extremely and obstinately Low at Night , and then shoots up in the morning.

By high, I mean 10 mmls plus, and by Low I mean sometimes something like 3.7..

What on earth is going on?!

Thankingvanyone with any suggestions!
 
Hi @LionChild can I ask what sort of insulin regime you are on and what types of insulin you are taking. A few points come immediately to my mind

1) if you are on a basal bolus regime it may be time to do some basal rate testing. People's insulin needs do change with time.

2) Though I appreciate 3.7 is lower than you like and 10 is higher than you like they are both relatively close to range so hopefully you won't need to make any massive changes?

3) Could dawn phenomena be coming into play in the morning?

4) the symogi effect has a night time hypo causing a morning rebound though I personally am not convinced that 3.7 is low enough to generate this?
my.clevelandclinic.org

The Somogyi Effect

Learn about one of the possible causes of high morning blood sugar in people with diabetes.
my.clevelandclinic.org my.clevelandclinic.org

Obviously this is something that you need to discuss with your diabetic team but the above are some suggestions that might or might not be relevant.
 
Hi Ellie,

Thank you for your detailed reply!

I take 3 units of levemir in the morning, and 1 unit of Novarapid just to help with the dawn phenomenon... and then I have 4 units of levemir at night.

I have Libre.

I have noticed in the last couple of weeks, that in the mornings, my blood glucose has been for me particularly high at 9+ mmoles.

Then suddenly what has developed is, (last couple of days) I have hypos towards the end of each evening after say about 9 o'clock--- that don't seem to respond to multiple snacks..keeping in hypo mode for hours..... keeping me awake to the early hours as I continue to monitor the blood glucose levels , and then finally it gets to a reasonable measure of blood glucose and i feel is safe to go to sleep .

Then, around 6 o'clock in the morning, BG has been 9+ mmoles again. This is very unusual for me!

If I do not at that time inject my morning Levemir, and the Novorapid, ----and if I wake up a bit later like 0900, or later... then I find my blood glucose has shot up to 10 or 11 mmoles!

Again this is very unusual for me.

I realize I may have to adjust the Levemir, but I don't want to do that until these results are consistent enough to require definitive action, and for example I am pretty clear that it is the levermir that is insufficient.

The hypos from around 9 o'clock in the evening seem a bit strange.

One other thought I suppose is that I might be having too much insulin for my evening meal?

A maybe the sumoji effect is the result of this overdosing of that meal?

Thank you for your interest.
 
Hi @LionChild I still think the most important factor is to get your basal right, because you can't do anything about your bolus if your basal is wrong.

I suppose there is also the issue that your insulin needs might actually be increasing due to the end of the honeymoon period??? (Though I'm not sure that this really fits in with what you are describing.)

Are you able to discuss your issues with your diabetic team?

And how much bolus are you taking with your meals?
 
Thanks Ellie. I dont think it can be just out honeymoon as I was diagnosed in April 2019, and no c-peptide 2 years ago...?

The Somoji thing would be totally new as well as sudden if that was the issue.

D. Phenomenon I am familiar with ---but the numbers are suddenly dramatically high.

But I will focus on basal as you suggest.
 
Back
Top