Dawn phenomenon??

[Roobee]

I am noticing my sugar levels are highest first thing in a morning. Last night I measured them at 8pm (2 hours after dinner) and the were 6.4. I took another measurement at 2 am an was 5.8. By 7.30 they had gone back up to 6.5. I didn't eat anything during this time??

How do I lower my levels in a morning?

Any help or advice welcome!

 

[Vonny]

Hi Roobee, I've read elsewhere on this forum that if you experience the dawn phenomenon eating a small piece of cheese, say, or a few nuts should lower your blood sugars. That said, I personally feel that 6.5 is a perfectly acceptable reading. Mine is sometimes around 7 in the morning, although it can drop to 5.5 during the day after eating.

However, I'm a relative novice in these matters, and hope someone else will confirm this soon x

 

[Kaylz]

BG meters aren't 100% accurate and all have an allowed error margin, all of those readings are well within that margin and not much different at all, you could get those 3 different results on 3 tests done within seconds of each other xx

 

[Sally71]

I wish my daughter's readings could be that low every morning!

 

[Roobee]

Thanks for the replies. My GP said she wants the readings below 6?! I don't actually have diabetes so I'm still unsure as to levels etc.

Will try the cheese!!

 

[Toucan]

Hello @Roobee
Your readings look good, and as @Kalyz says the variations can be due to meter variations. However if he general trend is to be higher in the morning then as @Vonny suggests, this could be due to Dawn Phenomenon
If yo would like to know more about this, have a look at this link Dawn Phenomenon

 

[Kaylz]

@everydayupsanddowns any chance of moving this to the general message board? i think it would be more appropriate there than in the food section xx

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Hope the late night snack helps @Roobee 🙂

 

[NotWorriedAtAll]

I worked out that for me the morning high reading was because I was getting a bit dehydrated during the night.
Since I started drinking a glass of water before bedtime and having something next to my bed so if I wake in the night I can have a drink my morning readings have settled down.

 

[Becka]

I am noticing my sugar levels are highest first thing in a morning. Last night I measured them at 8pm (2 hours after dinner) and the were 6.4. I took another measurement at 2 am an was 5.8. By 7.30 they had gone back up to 6.5. I didn't eat anything during this time??

Maybe I am stating the obvious, but it is important to remember your levels go up and down all the time. You do not have to eat for them to rise.

Even in a healthy body there is no single correct level at which the body can keep your levels. They go low so glucose is released, they go high then insulin is released. Up and down and up and down. That is why normal is regarded as anywhere between 4 and 7 mmol/L. Because some naturally people just end to be lower, other people tend to be higher, and no one stays the same.

If your levels just kept going lower over night you would become hypoglycaemic and risk waking up in a coma. Albeit without waking up. So your body dumping glucose into your system is a good thing, it is keeping you alive. It is only a problem if you wake up too high, which 6.5 mmol/L is not. It is around the upper end of normal, but it is still normal.

Do not take targets literally but as general aims. You physically cannot control the fractions, and as Kalyz says, all three of your readings fall within the same margin of error for a glucometer. Your actual levels on all those occasions could actually have been 6.0 mmol/L. But you will never know for sure, and no matter what you do your body will be releasing glucose and insulin as it deems necessary, going up and down and up and down. Nothing you can do can make it stop on 6.0 or any other number.

To me it sounds like you are achieving exactly what your G.P. wants yo see.

 

[Roobee]

Maybe I am stating the obvious, but it is important to remember your levels go up and down all the time. You do not have to eat for them to rise.

Even in a healthy body there is no single correct level at which the body can keep your levels. They go low so glucose is released, they go high then insulin is released. Up and down and up and down. That is why normal is regarded as anywhere between 4 and 7 mmol/L. Because some naturally people just end to be lower, other people tend to be higher, and no one stays the same.

If your levels just kept going lower over night you would become hypoglycaemic and risk waking up in a coma. Albeit without waking up. So your body dumping glucose into your system is a good thing, it is keeping you alive. It is only a problem if you wake up too high, which 6.5 mmol/L is not. It is around the upper end of normal, but it is still normal.

Do not take targets literally but as general aims. You physically cannot control the fractions, and as Kalyz says, all three of your readings fall within the same margin of error for a glucometer. Your actual levels on all those occasions could actually have been 6.0 mmol/L. But you will never know for sure, and no matter what you do your body will be releasing glucose and insulin as it deems necessary, going up and down and up and down. Nothing you can do can make it stop on 6.0 or any other number.

To me it sounds like you are achieving exactly what your G.P. wants yo see.

 

[Roobee]

Thank you,
Now you've explained It I understand it a bit more! I usually do have a drink by my bedside but generally forget to have it during the night!

The highest my sugar has been is 8.1, after lunch, so I guess that's not so bad...

 

[mikeyB]

Even normal folk can go up to 8 after eating, so for sure it ain’t so bad. Sounds like you are doing OK.🙂