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Sugars before sleep

Lynz84

Lynz84

Well-Known Member
Messages
344
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Hey everyone

I would be slightly cautious about going to sleep if my sugars are under 6.5. This can be quite annoying sometimes when i am waiting for sugars to rise and im so tired (like tonight!).
Does anyone have advice about what is an acceptable level to go to sleep on? Guess Im just worried about hypos when sleeping.

Thanks
 
Hey @Lynz84 - I always aim to be above 5.5mmol/l before sleep, if your basal is correct then you should wake at no less than 5.5mmol/l, obviously if you're waking higher or lower then check your basal rate is correct, I hate having to stay awake just to please my BG ;)
 
If you tested occasionally overnight itbwould give reassurance to know whether your levels actually go up or down at set times.

Also if you go to bed at 6 say and wake higher or lower then basals may need a tweak. I can nowadays go to bed at 4.5 and wake at 4.8 without eating anything extra or worry but I've tested and tested and tested overnight and do tweak a fair bit as my stomach plays havoc on my bloods I tend to have to test more often overnight to keep things on track.
 
Everyone has their own comfort level. For me it's 4.5mmol so long as my last NovoRapid was >3 hours ago. If I still have some active NovoRapid I'll aim for 5.5mmol.

If you can tweak your basal to the right level to keep you flat overnight then there is no need to give yourself a buffer and go to bed with a higher level.
 
If I was 6.5 I would probably have say a cheese biscuit to make sure. Though depends if basal is right i am still tweaking mine as recently been put on Toujeo. Last night went to bed on 8% and woke at 7.2% taking Toujeo at 24units in morning
 
Good morning everyone! I hope you are all having a great day!

I tend to say that diabetes is like a haute couture dress. Diabetes is an exclusive custom-fitted condition tailored specifically for the wearer’s measurements and body stance.
Therefore, my diabetes does not “fit” someone else and vice versa.

Having said that, I believe that the bg levels you should go to bed with ;) are determined by several parameters, like the behavior of your diabetes (is it a stable and predictable diabetes or is it a diabetes that surprises you often?), the level of activity and exercise that you do, if you have cases on delayed onset hypoglycemia, if you have hormonal imbalances or other conditions (along with your diabetes) that could affect your diabetes or your insulin absorption.

As a result, it is only you who can and should determine what works best for your case.

What I set as a priority regarding my diabetes is safety.
I have said to myself “let’s stay safe, first and then, I will handle the rest.”

According to DAFNE rules, you should never go to sleep below a 6.5.
In my case, because of my unpredictable diabetes and my active lifestyle, my diabetes nurse has advised me to never go to bed below 8.

Additionally, if I am below 10, I sometimes reduce my evening Levemir by 1 unit (especially if the day was more active than usual) or, alternatively, if I don’t reduce my evening Levemir, at around midnight I have a 10grams slow release snack (like some rye bread with butter to delay the effect).

I also check religiously my bg at 03:00 am. I wake up at 06:00 every morning so, I feel more certain that during these 6 hours in between midnight and 06:00 I will not have any unpleasant hypo surprises.

One more thing I would like to add is that it can make a lot of difference if you live alone or with people around you.
You could be somewhat more adventurous knowing that there are family members to help you in the case of a nocturnal hypoglycemia. But, if you live alone then, it is an unpleasant situation to wake up in the middle of the night all alone with a level of 2.5.:yuck:

And, as a last suggestion, please do not get any potentially risky ideas from all the “diabetes unicorns” who, in one way or another, have managed to master the perfect bg levels.

You do you! Do what is best for you.
And stay safe!:joyful:

Regards
Josephine.
 
I have been trying to go sleep in 5s! I usually then wake up in the low 5s to high 4s. I am now on Tresiba and some nights I could use my CGM chart as a ruler overnight!
 
I'm happy going to bed on a 5. I'm confident that I've got my basal right overnight so I don't need to sleep at a higher level. If you want to reduce Hba1C, the most effective method is to get your overnight insulin levels right so that you can sleep at a lower bg level.
 
Lynz84 said:
Does anyone have advice about what is an acceptable level to go to sleep on?
Click to expand...

An acceptable levels depends on a few things, as @pinewood allures to earlier it depends if you still have IOB and both exercise and alcohol can effect bg levels whilst we sleep, but the important one is whether your confident your basal dose is set at the right dose, only by testing for a few nights will you determine this.

Personally I like to be above 5 (ideally around 5.5) but below 7, my bg levels don't fluctuate by more than 1mmol/l and most nights it stays with 0.5 (I'm a pump user).
 
It really depends on how consistent your levels through the night.
I went to bed last night at 5.6 and woke up at 6.5 - I am okay with going to bed lower because I know i usually have a bit of the dawn phenomenon around 3am, and although i set my pump higher - my sugars do raise a bit before coming back down.

Obv the best thing you can do is have flat levels all night, but besides that its predicability. If you know you drop or raise overnight 90% of the time at least you can plan for it.

I would suggest taking a week or so and making sure you go to bed with no IOB, and about 4 hours after eating anything, test you sugars, sleep all night with no food, and test the moment you wake up. Do this for a few days and can begin to see what happens naturally. If you stay flat then you will know you can probably sleep at 5, or 6, or whatever and predict the morning. If it always different and unpredictable then you should do your best to figure why, something is happening and work to isolate it.

If you don't want to do anything like that, then yeah 6-7 is a good cushion, that allows for some drop or raise without causing TOO much trouble, its not great but its safe until you get things figured out.
 
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