Morning Highs - Diabetes Message Board

Kadensdad · 01-05-2003, 01:53 PM

Hi there,
I am 30 yrs old and have been IDDM for 13 years now and have really been struggling with morning highs. My BS is usually good before bed but almost always too high in the moring , I mean really high! I take NPH and Humalog. Min 4 shots a day. My mid - night readings are usually good. I think that I have the Dawn Phenomenon but have been discouraged in thinking this by Dr. and RN in the past. I have been taking NPH at approx. 9 PM. My morning test is usually at about 8. What I would like to know is what other peaople tried if they had this problem and how it worked for them? Thaks for your imput and feel free to e-mail me.
Chris

[This message has been edited by Kadensdad (edited 01-05-2003).]

01-05-2003, 02:18 PM

My diabetic coach told me some people have morning highs all the time ---I do. But by noon I could be having low blood sugar. In some people the insulin kicks in after they have been mobile for a while. They told me that was normal..... Hmmmmmmmm

MikelBear · 01-05-2003, 03:22 PM

This may NOT actually be a true "dawn phenomena" but rather a rebound. which is, I'm convinced, equally common, especially if you do not go hypo other times of the day too often. There is a way to check for this. It's a drag, but it works--you've got to set an alarm several times in the night for like, 2am, 3:30am and 5am. What you are looking for is to see if you are actually going LOW in the middle of the night. If your liver has a store of glucagon, it will release when you go low and you'll wake up high from this "liver dump" of sugar. If that's what is happening, you can fix it with a continuous-release carb snack, like the Extend Bar, at bedtime, changing the times or amounts of your insulin doses, or a combination of things. It's a REAL juggling act to get it right...

Michael, Type 1 since 1965