Should the Time on a Pump be Altered to Match Daylight Time Saving?

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Leanne S

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Type 1
Hi all,

This is my first post here. My name is Leanne, I have had Type 1 Diabetes for 20 years and started using the Accu-Chek Insight pump in April 2016.

I was wondering if anybody knew of steadfast rules surrounding daylight time saving and updating pump settings? A general internet search suggests the consensus is that not adjusting the time is dangerous but I am questioning this because surely if I alter the time, my basal rates become misaligned with my body's needs? For example:

My GMT settings:
04:00am - 1.31 units
05:00am - 0.77 units

Moving the times by an hour here would mean quite a big difference. And although the times would be correct in terms of record keeping, the needs of my body haven't also shifted by an hour- therefore at 04:00 (as was) my body will always need 1.31 units, but this is now 05:00 in the real world; just because an external change has occured in terms of time does not mean that my internal requirements have also changed. Does this make sense?

The websites I looked at seemed to indicate that the "danger" occured at meal-times, however as this is dealt with by bolus insulin I again am not quite sure why this relates at all to changing the time on the pump to match DTS.

I am interested to know if I am overthinking this and if I should actually change the time? What do you guys do? Thanks lots.

Leanne
 
Personally, I always change the pump clock to reflect current local time i.e. change with daylight saving. Your body will adapt to current time quite quickly for a one hour time change. Afterall, you don't shift your normal activities to stay on GMT when the clock changes. You still go to bed and have your meals at the same times.
 
Sorry Leanne, I should have said welcome. You will find lots of helpful stuff on here.
 
Welcome Leanne. There are loads of very helpful people in this forum and any question you ask will be something someone else will be glad that you put up, so do ask away.

I always change my pump to the current time settings. I change meal times to match the current clock times and soon adapt to the new timings. I can see why you would be concerned with the differences in your rates, but I think that your body needs will be based on your Sleep cycle . I hope that helps
 
When I am flying anywhere I just change it to the time it is. I went to Asia on my M/Bike & just tested all the time (a few time zones) Welcome.
 
Yes change your times and welcome to the forum.
 
Its the same as eating your tea at "x" time every single day. A pump is very adaptable ?😉
 
I would also change time and allow body to catch up. It usually only takes 24-48 hours or so for the body-clock to catch up.

Out of interest - how did you end up with such a large difference? Was that through fasting-basal testing? It's really quitea jump. Not saying you don't need it - everyone's different - but i find I need to re-check basals every month or two and wondered when you last updated your pattern(s) and what your process was.

Welcome to the forum by the way 🙂
 
Welcome Leanne, I change my combo pump and handset when the clocks go back or forward, and when I go on holiday unless it's only for a 2 day break then I don't bother, but just make a note to self that I'm an hour out
 
Sorry for the late reply, I'd stopped getting response notifications (my own fault)... evidently I haven't quite got the hang of the forums yet.

I've decided to change the time based on people's responses as it seems that the consensus is that basal requirements are based on external factors such as time of going to sleep and waking up, rather than nebulous internal reasons.

In response to everydayupsanddowns, I last did basal testing in February/early March- but I have several large jumps like this all over the place, evidently my body is just a bit weird 🙂

Thanks everyone for your input.
 
Oh well I have that too - more than doubles for some hours - however changing the clock never seems to have much effect. But there again - it will be picked up by the pump at the next bolus, in the BG test and the correction it adds on or subtracts.
 
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