The Dawn Phenomenon

[skb]

For those, who may not know, we have an article on the subject at our website http://www.diabetic.pub/The%20Dawn%20Phenomenon.htm

Incidentally, today I happened to check myself for DP. At 3.00 am I was awake for a while & decided to test myself. I was 95 mg/dl. When I finally woke up at 7:00 I was at 111 mg /dl. Clearly, DP had contributed 16 mg/dl.

I haven't checked for ketones in a long time & with a few carby excursions in the recent past, I'd assume that I'm likely in & out of ketosis a lot. I'd take a further guess, that I'm probably half empty/half full as far as glycogen reserves are concerned.
For those that have had similar experiences or have checked lately, what is the difference that DP can & does make to your readings ?

[rocky]

never checked skb
but il will when ever i get up in the night
will let you know

[auntiekris]

Before insulin, I could wake up with numbers up to 40 pts higher than when I went to bed.  Now that I'm on insulin it's a little less extreme - yesterday woke up at 5am, its was 60.  Fell asleep for an hour and it had bumped to 75.

What I really continue to struggle with is waking up - moving around, getting to work - and then my numbers can jump 15-40 pts.  I've tried eating immediately when I wake, waking up in the middle of the night to eat a snack, not eating, etc.  I'm guessing this is DP too?  Again, it's gotten better since insulin and I hope it continues to improve as I keep eating LCHF, exercising, etc.

[starsign]

We've never checked like that for DP. How long does that rise in BG stay for ?

[auntiekris]

My BG seems to plummet as soon as I eat lunch which usually around noon.  That makes me think I need to experiment more with eating sooner, etc. 

[skb]

Agreed. Self experimentation is the best teacher. No one size fits all as far as D is concerned. The number of variables makes each one of us a little different from the other. Back in 2010-11 I used to check my BG 20-25 times for all sorts of things. I would finish a box of 50 strips in 2-3 days. And they were pretty expensive in those days. Now the strips are a lot cheaper. Maybe it's the economics of scale.

[skb]

I repeated the DP test today with a variation. Here's what happened;

I woke up at 4:00 am & tested (113). A little high for me as I had a spoonful of rice for lunch (office party). I took my 50 mcg thyroxine pill at that time to give my liver a little something to deal with, while I went back to sleep for a couple of hours. Finally woke up at 08:30 which is very late for me. The reading now is 118.

[rocky]

yeah i got the DP bug yesterday, was much higher than usual as i was late getting up
so if i hv my metformin sometime early morning will that help
is that what you r saying

[Shanny]

The medication he's taking is for thyroid issues and it needs to be taken on an empty stomach. It doesn't build up in the bloodstream.

The medication you're taking - metformin - needs to be taken every day about the same time, only because once it reaches maximum levels in your bloodstream (which occurs after about 3 or 4 weeks from onset), it only needs to be taken regularly to maintain that level.

The sleeping in is what smacks us down, because it gives our livers more time to drizzle glucose into our bloodstream.

[skb]

As Shanny said, my medication is for different issues & is to be had on an empty stomach. With metformin, since you have been taking it for quite sometime, the timing shift might help. It will certainly keep the liver occupied.
Why don't you try & let your meter give you the answer to that. 

[rocky]

thanx skb
yeah im not confusing the meds, just thought that it might help to keep the liver busy as you say
will try it when i wake early which is not so easy