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This Natural Phenomenon Messes Up Blood Sugar

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This Natural Phenomenon Messes Up Blood Sugar

So you’ve put into practice the recommendations given by your diabetes team, and your blood sugar is looking awesome all throughout the day. Before hitting the sack, you test your glycemia one last time just to be safe. All looks good, so you drift away to la-la land with a sound mind.

The next morning, you are baffled to witness a spike in your blood sugar, yet you haven’t even had breakfast yet.

What the heck is going on?

Before getting frustrated with yourself, take a deep breath, and allow me to ease your mind.




The Dawn Phenomenon

If you tend to experience high blood sugar from the moment you wake up, the dawn phenomenon (or dawn effect) might be the culprit to blame.

The dawn effect affects people with Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes and can occur before or after breakfast.

You see, just before you break away from your sleep and “awaken,” the body naturally unleashes hormones such as growth hormone, glucagon, cortisol, and adrenaline all the while decreases the release of insulin. This process allows the body to have the power to wake up and perform tasks in the morning despite fasting for several hours and not having breakfast yet. While everyone is affected by this phenomenon, people with diabetes have a harder time to readjust their blood sugar levels due to their disease. The release of these counter-regulatory hormones leads to insulin resistance and high level of blood sugar.

The dawn effect tends to occur between 2 AM and 8 AM.

To verify if you are a victim of the dawn effect, check your glycemia for a couple of nights at 2 AM or 3 AM. Discuss with your diabetes team about your results and determine which strategies work best. The dawn effect varies from one person to another as well as one night from another.

References

American Diabetes Association. URL Link. Accessed February 13, 2017.

Diabète Québec. URL Link. Accessed February 13, 2017.

Mayo Clinic. URL Link. Accessed February 13, 2017.