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Timing of pre bed Levemir ?

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C

Cleo

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
Hi all,
Just wanted to know whether levemir or lantus users always take their bed time injection at the same time ? I usually take it around 10pm but sometimes I'm so knackered and want to go to bed a bit earlier (the exciting life of a pregnant person ......). I understand that you probably can't take it too many hours in advance but just wanted to know what kind of leeway, if any, that I have..
Thanks in advance x
 
My nighttime lantus injections could vary between 10 pm and 1:30 am and didn't seem to cause me any problems. Lantus is a bit different to levemir though, since it has a tendency to 'persist', hence the reason why changes to the dose can take 2-3 days to show their full effect. Levemir is much more predictable and shorter lasting it seems (as indicated by the fact that people often split injections and effects more immediate), so perhaps you wouldn't have as much leeway with it.
 
I'm on levimir and often alter my timing of bed time insulin as I switch from days to nights on a weekly basis and this therefore affects my timing of insulin but havnt really noticed it making much of an impact on my bg
 
It probably depends on how long the levemir lasts in your body. It is supposed to be about 18 hours, so a split dose, morning and evening 12hrs apart can be adjusted to give a level dose in your body. I do about 7:30 am and 5pm. But like today when I didn't get back from shopping until about 6pm and injected then, it doesn't seem to have much impact a couple of hours out of sync. Leaving it until 10pm doesn't give you much leeway on timing. Do you do a morning one and when?
 
I take mine at the same time every day, 9.30am and 9.30pm as it fits around work shifts plus day and night shifts.

I wouldn't have thought that an hour either way would make much different, I take mine pretty much on the dot as I have alarms set on my phone and if I didn't have it then and there I would get distracted by something and forget!
 
My guess would be that it depends on how Levemir acts for you. It seems likely that it will have a profile of around 16-18 hours (it is often more successful when taken 2x a day) depending on dose/kg body weight. If you are taking 1x a day have you done a fasting test for the period between normal eve meal and bedtime to see what (if any) cover you are getting there and/or whether your eve meal dose is partly covering basal needs day-to-day? If that is the case, my suspicion would be that it would be a question of eve-meal to Levemir timing, and that if there is much more than 5hrs between them you would prob start to see fairly rapid BG rise. All guesswork on my part of course!!
 
many thanks to everyone for your replies. Always interesting and very helpful to hear other people's perspectives.

Vicsetter - yes forgot to mention that I take my morning injection with breakfast so around 7 - 7.30 AM. I took my bed time injection last night around 9.30pm and it didnt seem to make much of a difference today and this morning.

Think an hour's leeway should be fine for now ! 🙂
 
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