Why Is My Morning Blood Sugar So High
A complex array of factors affects blood sugar levels, including hormones, diet, and lifestyle.
Q: I have prediabetes and now eat minimal carbs and sugar. My doctor told me to monitor my sugar levels, morning and night. At night, two hours after eating, my sugar levels are between 112 and 130 mg/dL . But in the morning, my fasting sugar level is always higher than the night number. Why is that? What am I doing wrong?
There are a few reasons why your blood sugar may be elevated in the morning. First, its important to understand that certain hormonal changes that occur overnight may lead to high blood sugar levels in the morning.
Why Is Blood Sugar High In The Morning
High blood sugar in the morning is a popular topic it seems to stump many people.
For instance, a while back I had a client sending me her blood sugar charts every few days and on those charts she always made some notes if she had questions.
Every time she sent them through, I noticed she had 3 big question marks against her morning readings. And on another morning when her morning blood sugar levels were high at 160 mg/dl .
She had written:
I dont understand. 97 mg/dl last night when I went to sleep. I didnt eat anything because I didnt feel well. Humm
Here on the DMP blog we often receive comments like:
- Why is my reading in the morning higher than when I go to sleep?
- My morning numbers are always high no matter what I do. When I say high I mean 190. I am so frustrated and dont understand why.
- Why does my blood glucose spike in my sleep giving me a high reading in the morning when I watch all I eat at dinner time?
Do these morning situations sound familiar to you? Are you constantly questioning why you have high blood sugar in the morning?
Logically wed think that it should be at its lowest in the morning, right?
Well dont panic, there is a reason for it, so lets explore why morning blood sugar is often higher. And then well discuss what you can do to help lower blood sugar in the morning.
Blood Sugar Level Charts For Those With Diabetes
Normal blood sugar levels, for those with diabetes, will vary depending on someones age and the time of day. For example, when fasting, blood sugar levels are often in the target goal range. The type of food eaten will impact blood sugar levels in different ways. A meal with a lot of carbohydrates will raise blood sugar quicker than a meal that contains carbohydrates, protein, and fat . Blood sugar will rise after a meal, but will start to return to normal levels in several hours.
Lets take a look at what blood sugar levels should be, in those with diabetes, based on their age.
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The Dawn Phenomenon Or The Somogyi Effect
The only way to be sure what is causing your high blood sugar in the morning is to wake up several nights in a row and check your blood glucose between 2 and 4 o’clock. If the result is normal or high, it may indicate a dawn phenomenon. If it is too low, it can result in a rebound of diabetes.
The most common causes of morning hypoglycemia
- eating a meal rich in fat and protein before bedtime without insulin protection,
- the improperly selected dose of an antidiabetic drug, too low a dose of basal insulin,
- injecting insulin in the wrong place,
- injecting insulin into the hypertrophied subcutaneous tissue,
- inappropriate timing of basal insulin administration,
- unacceptable type of basal insulin,
- inadequate mixing of insulin before injection,
- the dawn phenomenon,
Just Ate Too Much The Night Before
If you had a late night high carb snack, then it is possible that your fasting blood glucose is high simply due to poor food choices in the presence of insulin resistance. As well, a large late night dinner high in fat can delay digestion and absorption of the carb content of the meal enough so that your post-meal rise in BG is going like gangbusters around the time the Dawn Phenomenon is kicking in.
Need help controlling carbs at meals? You can start with a typical goal of 30-45 grams of total carbs/meal if you are an adult woman or 45-60 grams/meal if you are an adult man. Try limiting your bedtime snack to 11- 20 grams total carbs. Discuss personalized meal and snack goals with your healthcare provider. If you have diabetes, ask your doctor for a referral to a Certified Diabetes Educator . This type of specialist is trained to help patients manage all aspects of their diabetes care including how to lower morning blood sugar.
Originally published on Dec 4, 2012,Updated: Updated: Jan 17, 2020
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What Can You Do About It
You might be able to make changes in the timing of your meals, medications, or insulin injections to help prevent dawn phenomenon. First, keep a detailed record of what’s happening in the evening and in the morning, including your blood sugar levels, eating habits, medications or insulin, and physical activity. Then, talk to your health care provider or diabetes educator about changes you can make to prevent dawn phenomenon.
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Not Taking Enough Meal Time Insulin
This is the first thing to look into. Make sure that you correctly determine the number of carbohydrates in your last meal of the day and take the insulin to suit. Be sure to also look out for sources of hidden carbs as well. Our bodies react to food and insulin differently at different times of the day. Many individuals including myself have a different carb to insulin ratio at night. I normally have to take a bit more insulin at night especially if the meal is high in carbohydrates.
Try eating your last meal at least 2 hours before bed so that you can check the 2 hour post dinner blood sugar reading. This will indicate if you are indeed giving the correct amount of insulin. If you have a good reading before bed but its much higher in the morning, then there is definitely another issue.
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High Blood Sugar In The Morning: Is It The Dawn Phenomenon
If you have high blood sugar levels in the morning, you may be experiencing the dawn phenomenon, the name given to an increase in blood sugar that usually occurs between 2 a.m. and 8 a.m., according to the Mayo Clinic. One reason this occurs: During the early hours of the morning, our bodies secrete higher levels of a hormone called cortisol, says Dr. Spratt. When cortisol levels are high, it can make you more resistant to insulin, a hormone that helps regulate your blood sugar levels.
“Some people have a striking dawn phenomenon,” says Dr. Spratt. “You can look at their continuous glucose tracing and see that their blood sugar level suddenly goes up at 3 a.m.” If this is the case for you, your doctor may adjust your insulin medication or suggest you use an insulin pump .
Why Is My Blood Sugar High In The Morning But Normal All
Modified: Apr 22, 2022 by John Coleman · This post may contain affiliate links ·
Elevated blood sugar, or abnormal blood glucose, is a health-threatening condition requiring steps. It is an alarm from the body that should not be ignored. Hyperglycemia can be lowered through proper diet and physical activity in many cases.
Contents
Diabetes is a disease characterized by elevated glucose levels in the blood, or what is called hyperglycemia. There are different types of diabetes:
Type 1 – insulin-dependent diabetes is an autoimmune disease that develops due to a lack of insulin, which occurs because of damage to the pancreatic islets.
Type 2 – insulin-dependent diabetes is characterized by high blood sugar levels, insulin resistance, and relative insulin deficiency.
There is a reason why fasting blood glucose targets are the most stringent – we should wake up with sugar between 70-110 mg/dl. Upon waking up too high, a blood sugar level can effectively spoil our mood because it makes it challenging to maintain normoglycemia during the day. Still, above all, it is awful for health.
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How Blood Sugar Testing Could Help You
Whenever you eat, your blood sugar level rises, before dropping again some time later. This is called a postprandial, or post-meal, response and is perfectly normal.
However, some foods cause your blood sugar to rise much higher than others. These spikes can lead to bigger dips afterward due to large amounts of insulin released in response to the sugar spike. This can leave you feeling tired or lacking in energy.
Over time, this pattern can increase your risk of metabolic diseases like heart disease and type 2 diabetes.
Importantly, ZOEs research has shown that everyone responds differently to foods. This means a food thats fine for one persons blood sugar may cause others to spike, and vice versa.
ZOEs at-home test uses a sensor called a continuous glucose monitor to measure your blood sugar levels throughout the day and night, before and after you eat. This helps us to see how different foods affect your levels.
But unlike having just a CGM, our tests also look at your blood fat levels and your gut microbiome the bacteria and other microorganisms that live in your gut. These are both linked to your metabolic health, too.
The ZOE program analyzes all of this information to give you personalized recommendations that can help you eat the best foods for your unique metabolism and avoid the responses associated with worse metabolic health.
You can take a free quiz to find out more.
What Foods Are Responsible For Decreasing The Level Of Diabetes
- Apples: researchers have found that people who eat apples are lesser prone to diabetes and heart-related disease.
- Cinnamon: After 40 days of continuous consumption of cinnamon, blood sugar is seen to decrease.
- Citrus fruits: people having citrus grains have a lower tendency of diabetes and other heart-related diseases.
- Cold water fish: Consumption of raw water fishes like Alaskan salmon, sardines, and Atlantic mackerel leads to a lower level of LDL cholesterol and HDL cholesterol.
- Fiber-rich food: people who have at least 24- 50 gms of fiber a day are lesser prone to diabetes and other heart-related diseases.
- Legumes: consumption of chickpeas, cannelloni beans, kidney beans and lentils in soups have seen to lower the level of diabetes in humans
- Green tea: regular use of green tea leads to neutralization of the chronic inflammation caused by high-fat food, lack of exercise and eating few vegetable.
- Nuts: nuts are rich in dietary fiber, and they are said to protect the heart from cardiac diseases.
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How To Lower Morning Blood Sugar
Matthew Garza
Trying to learn how to lower morning blood sugar? Heres why your glucose levels rise in the morning and a few things you can try to keep them in range.
Waking up with high glucose levels may feel like it doesn’t make sense. You spend several hours asleep, not consuming any carbs, and yet somehow your glucose levels are still high when you wake up in the morning.
Why does this happen? What can you do to make sure your glucose levels are safely in range in the morning? Learn more about some tips on avoiding high morning blood sugar levels so you can start your day off right.
Consider The Timing Of Insulin Or Medications
Considering the timing of insulin or other medications may also help. This is because its possible that you may not have enough in your system to counteract the effects of the dawn phenomenon in the early morning hours.
Potential things to try include:
- taking your insulin or diabetes medications prior to bed
- using long-acting insulin a little later in the day
- programing an insulin pump to give more insulin in the early morning hours
Adjusting your insulin or medications can potentially have other health effects. Because of this, always speak with your doctor before doing so. For example, using too much before bed may cause you to have low blood sugar during the night, which can also be dangerous.
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases recommends seeing your doctor if your blood sugar is high more than three times in a 2-week period.
Your doctor may suggest continuous glucose monitoring to evaluate your blood sugar levels during the night. This can help determine if youre experiencing the dawn phenomenon, the Somogyi effect, or something else.
Your doctor may also choose to adjust or switch your insulin or diabetes medication. For example, programing an insulin pump to give more insulin in the early morning hours can help to counteract the dawn phenomenon.
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Support Groups And Counseling For High Blood Sugar
You or family members may wish to join a support group with other people to share your experiences. The American Diabetes Association and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation are both excellent resources. Your health care provider will have information about local groups in your area. The following groups also provide support:
American Association of Diabetes Educators100 W Monroe, Suite 400Chicago, IL 60603
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Mild High Blood Sugar
If your blood glucose levels are consistently higher than your target range you may have mild symptoms of high blood sugar. Symptoms experienced may include:
- Increased thirst
- Restlessness, drowsiness, or difficulty waking up
If your body produces little or no insulin you also could also experience:
- Rapid breathing
- Fruity breath odor
- Loss of appetite
If your blood sugar levels continue to increase, symptoms can become worse and you may become confused and lethargic. You also may become unconscious if your blood sugar levels are very high.
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Lifestyle Strategies To Lower Morning Blood Sugar Levels
The truth is, that despite the fact we know the Dawn Phenomenon exists, and worsens morning blood sugar in those with diabetes and prediabetes, researchers still havent solved exactly how to lower morning levels.
However, try some of the following methods to see if they work for you. Every person is different and while there is no one proven method for lowering morning levels, many people do report one, or a combination of the following helps.
What Makes The Blood Sugar Level To Rise
In many cases, after you have your dinner, the food is being broken down into simpler substances like glucose. Now glucose can be utilized for utilization by the body and broken down into energy. While you are at rest the lover releases glucose in the bloodstream, thats why there is the excess of glucose in the blood and while on being tested it shows the higher level of blood sugar.
The tendency, when the insulin released from the liver does not meet the requirement to utilize the glucose, thereby accumulating the excess of it during morning 3 am and waking up time is called the dawn phenomenon.
The solution is that you have to change the time of having dinner and then medication. Have an early dinner and thereby have medicine, so that it has enough time to work on your increase blood sugar level.
Somogyi phenomena: Its been seen that people who take insulin during evenings are often subjected to low blood sugar at mornings. The reason is that rebound hyperglycemia, and this is very common in children who are affected by diabetes.
Instant increase in blood sugar and stress causes the decrease in insulin level, which raises the level of diabetes.
Also Read:Why Is My Fasting Blood Sugar High in the Morning?
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Why Is My Blood Glucose So High When I Wake Up
- 2 Minutes Read
It doesn’t seem fair, does it? You haven’t eaten anything all night and you still wake up with high blood glucose! What is going on? For those of you with diabetes, this post tells you how to lower morning blood sugar.
It doesn’t seem fair, does it? You haven’t eaten anything all night and you still wake up with high blood glucose! What is going on? For those of you with diabetes, this post tells you how to lower morning blood sugar.
High Blood Sugar Levels In The Morning
People usually have slightly higher blood sugar levels in the morning. However, in some people with diabetes, these levels can be significantly higher.
Diabetes is a condition that impairs the bodys ability to process blood glucose. Without careful management, blood sugar levels can become too high, which is known as hyperglycemia. Long periods of high blood sugar levels can result in health complications.
Even when a person carefully controls the condition, they may notice blood sugar spikes in the morning. There are three main causes of high blood sugar in the morning:
- the Somogyi effect
It is important to note that this article refers to effects experienced in the morning, but these effects may occur anytime a person sleeps for a long period. People who work at night and sleep during the day can also experience these effects.
In this article, we will explore these causes, including what they can mean for a persons health and when to see a doctor.
dawn phenomenon refers to periods of hyperglycemia that occur during the early morning hours. The shift in blood sugar levels happens as a result of hormonal changes in the body.
Hormones, such as cortisol, glucagon, epinephrine, and growth hormone are known as counter-regulatory hormones. They can cause blood sugar levels to rise. The activity of cortisol and growth hormone normally increases each day to stimulate the liver to produce glucose at dawn.
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