How To Prevent Low Blood Sugar Overnight

How Common Is Low Blood Glucose

How to Avoid High Blood Sugars at Night | 4 Easy Tips

Low blood glucose is common among people with type 1 diabetes and among people with type 2 diabetes who take insulin or some other diabetes medicines. In a large global study of people with diabetes who take insulin, 4 in 5 people with type 1 diabetes and nearly half of those with type 2 diabetes reported a low blood sugar event at least once over a 4-week period.2

Severely low blood glucose, defined as when your blood glucose level drops so low you cant treat it yourself, is less common. Among U.S. adults with diabetes who take insulin or some diabetes medicines that help the pancreas release insulin into the blood, 2 in 100 may develop severely low blood glucose each year.3

What Are Some Tips To Prevent Nighttime Blood Sugar Level Dips

Check your level before bed. According to Sulay Shah, M.D., a board certified endocrinologist, the only way to know if you are at risk is to monitor your blood glucose levelsas there arent always telltale signs.If you check and you notice that your levels are close to 70 mg/dL at bedtime, then you know you might be at risk, Dr. Shah says. In this case, he recommends eating some complex carbohydrates, like a peanut butter sandwich, an apple with peanut butter or one slice of multigrain toast with some avocado.

Dont skip dinner. If you arent eating dinner, Dr. Shah advises skipping your rapid-acting insulin or medicine, like glipizide or glimepiride, that can decrease your blood sugar levels. The goal here is to match your meal and medication, he says.

Monitor your alcohol intake. If you notice that your blood sugar is dropping after having a few beers or vodka sodas, then Dr. Shah warns that you may need to try to eat complex carbohydrates with the alcohol. Dr. Shah notes that blood sugar tends to drop 3 to 4 hours after drinking alcohol. When you regularly drink alcohol, you are decreasing the amount of stored glucose in the liver which helps to maintain a blood sugar in normal range, he explains.

Eating Habits To Avoid Blood Sugar Spikes Say Dietitians Eat This Not That

As I mentioned above, foods that help stabilize blood sugar levels at night and make the best bedtime snacks for diabetes are:

I asked some of my favorite diabetes colleagues what their diabetes bedtime snack recommendations are and this is what they had to say

Bedtime snacks can be helpful in lowering morning blood sugar for some people, recommends fellow dietitian and diabetes expert Rahf Al Bouchi, RDN, LD! I recommend experimenting with protein and complex carbohydrates for a bedtime snack and monitor your blood sugar to see how your body responds. Examples include whole grain crackers and cheese or Greek yogurt and nuts.

And, Casey Seiden, MS, RD, CDCES offers some more ideas, Everyones blood sugars respond differently to bedtime, but ideally you should aim for a combination of complex carbohydrates and protein or healthy fats to keep glucose stable overnight. Try snacks like rice cake with mashed avocado on top, Greek yogurt with blackberries, energy bites with oats and nut butter, or cocoa chia pudding.

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What Are Clinical Trials For Low Blood Glucose

Clinical trialsand other types of clinical studiesare part of medical research and involve people like you. When you volunteer to take part in a clinical study, you help doctors and researchers learn more about disease and improve health care for people in the future.

Researchers are studying many aspects of low blood glucose levels in diabetes, such as

how to diagnose and treat low blood glucose among people with diabetes
medicines that can treat symptoms of low blood glucose in people with hypoglycemia unawareness
educational approaches to reduce fear of low blood glucose, which can make it harder for you to control your diabetes

What Should I Do If This Happens

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People and their partners or roommates should learn to recognize the signs of nighttime hypoglycemia. Be prepared! Ask your doctor for an emergency glucagon kit. This kit contains a fast-acting medication that can be injected if the person cant be woken up. Store the kit in a bedside drawer for easy access.

DO NOT PUT ANYTHING INTO A PERSON’S MOUTH IF THEY ARE ASLEEP OR CANNOT SIT UP.

If the person cannot be woken: If there is no emergency glucagon kit, call 911. If the person has a glucagon kit, the partner or roommate should follow the instructions to fill the syringe and inject the medicine. Once fully awake, he/she should eat a meal and check their blood glucose every few hours using a home test kit. After giving the injection, the persons doctor should be notified.

If the person can be woken up and sit without support: They should be given a fast-acting glucose source. Good options include hard candy, fruit juice or glucose paste or tablets, which can be purchased at most pharmacies. Once the person is fully awake, they should eat a meal and check their blood glucose every few hours using a home test kit.

How To Treat Someone Who’s Unconscious Or Very Sleepy

Follow these steps:

Put the person in the recovery position and do not put anything in their mouth so they do not choke.

If an injection of glucagon is available and you know how to use it, give it to them immediately.

If they wake up within 10 minutes of getting the injection and feel better, move on to step 5. If they do not improve within 10 minutes, call 999 for an ambulance.

If they’re fully awake and able to eat and drink safely, give them a carbohydrate snack.

They may need to go to hospital if they’re being sick , or their blood sugar level drops again.

Tell your diabetes care team if you ever have a severe hypo that caused you to lose consciousness.

How To Lower Blood Sugar Levels Fast

While some sources claim that consuming water or a high-protein snack can help you lower your blood sugar levels quickly, there isnt enough evidence to back this up. You need to contact your doctor immediately.

However, if you need to lower your blood sugar quickly and effectively in an emergency, you can use the following ways:

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How Do You Treat Hypoglycemia

Treatment for hypoglycemia involves both the immediate steps needed to raise your blood sugar level in addition with the later treatment or medication dose adjustment to prevent recurrence.

To immediately raise your blood sugar level, Dr. Shah advocates the rule of 15eating 15 grams of carbohydrates and then checking your blood sugar level 15 minutes later. Fast-acting carbohydrates include:

4 glucose tablets
4 ounces of fruit juices

Keep repeating these steps every 15 minutes until your blood sugar reaches above 70 mg/dL, he explains. Once your level has stabilized, its important to then eat a snack or even a full meal to maintain that balance, Dr. Shah adds.

If your symptoms are more severe and/or a person is unable to swallow, you may need an injection of glucagon, he says.

To prevent episodes of hypoglycemia in the future, Dr. Shah says that treatment may involve the changing of prescribed regimens and dosages or adjusting your meal plans.

What Causes High Blood Sugar Levels In The Morning

Solve Diabetes Overnight Understanding This Simple….

Commonly known reasons why your blood sugar may be high in the morning include high-carb bedtime snacks and not enough diabetes medications.

Yet two lesser-known reasons may be causing your morning blood sugar woes: the dawn phenomenon and the Somogyi effect. These causes of high morning blood sugar levels are a result of body changes and reactions that happen while you are sleeping.

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What Causes A Low Blood Sugar Level

In people with diabetes, the main causes of a low blood sugar level are:

the effects of medicine especially taking too much insulin, medicines called sulfonylureas , medicines called glinides , or some antiviral medicines to treat hepatitis C
skipping or delaying a meal
not eating enough carbohydrate foods in your last meal, such as bread, cereals, pasta, potatoes and fruit
exercise, especially if it’s intense or unplanned
drinking alcohol

Sometimes there’s no obvious reason why a low blood sugar level happens.

Very occasionally, it can happen in people who do not have diabetes.

S For Treating A Person With Symptoms Keeping Them From Being Able To Treat Themselves

If the glucagon is injectable, inject it into the buttock, arm or thigh, following the instructions in the kit. If your glucagon is inhalable, follow the instructions on the package to administer it into the nostril.

When the person regains consciousness , they may experience nausea and vomiting.

Dont hesitate to call 911. If someone is unconscious and glucagon is not available or someone does not know how to use it, call 911 immediately.

Do NOT:

Provide food or fluids

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How Can I Stabilize My Blood Sugar Overnight

Modified: Apr 25, 2022 by John Coleman · This post may contain affiliate links ·

During sleep, deficient blood sugar levels are a big problem for people with diabetes. While during the day, we can usually recognize the symptoms of impending hypoglycemia without a problem, at night, we may sleep through them. This significantly increases the risk of severe hypoglycemia with loss of consciousness.

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Alcohol and nighttime hypoglycemia

Many factors influence the stability of blood glucose during sleep. First, the night is a consequence of the day. Whether we played sports, ate, or drank alcohol, how intense it was.

Lack of sleep increases the release of stress hormones, slows the metabolic rate, and makes it challenging to maintain optimal weight. People who don’t get regular sleep have an increased risk of dying from heart disease. Sleepless nights result in impaired tissue sensitivity to insulin , one of the causes of diabetes development.

Long-term sleep deprivation impairs glucose tolerance and exacerbates diabetes. In the morning, after a sleepless night, blood glucose can be too high and difficult to control, and sleep-disordered diabetics have considerable difficulty controlling their disease.

Preventing Night Time Hypoglycemia

Blood Sugar Solution: reduce blood sugar immediately

A useful first step towards preventing hypoglycemia is to test your blood glucose levels before bed.

For people on two or more insulin injections per day can help prevent hypos over night keeping blood glucose levels above 6.5 mmol/l before going to bed.

If over night hypos are suspected, carry out a test at 3am. Together with a before bed and first thing in the morning test, this can help to understand how your sugar levels are behaving over night.

If sugar levels are dropping too low over night, you may need to adjust your insulin doses. Speak to your doctor if you need help with correctly adjusting your insulin

The other way to prevent sugar levels going too low is to take some carbohydrate before bed.

Hypos can also be prevented by:

Ensuring you basal insulin dose is not too high
Reducing your night time/evening long acting insulin following exercise
Taking carbohydrate before bed following an evening/night of drinking
Not missing out dinner or any snacks you would usually have

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How To Prevent Nocturnal Hypoglycemia

Start by talking to your doctor about a bedtime blood sugar target. Ask about your risk for hypoglycemia and if you should get a glucagon kit. Dont miss dinner, exercise before bedtime, or drink alcohol at night. Have a sugar and protein snack before bedtime, like a wheat cracker with cheese.

If you have had symptoms of nocturnal hypoglycemia, work with your doctor on a prevention plan. This may include switching to a longer acting insulin that does not peak during sleep, or changing your insulin dose. You might be asked to set an alarm and check your blood sugar in the early morning for a while. For people at high risk for nocturnal hypoglycemia, a continuous glucose monitor may be the best solution. A CGM can check your blood sugar every 5 minutes and can set off an alarm if your sugar gets too high or too low.

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Ways To Prevent Low Blood Sugar At Night

Detecting nighttime dips in blood sugar can be tricky, but these simple strategies can help you prevent nighttime hypoglycemia and sleep without worry.

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Nighttime dips in blood sugar levels are common among people with diabetes. Authors of a study published in June 2013 in Quality of Life Research noted that people with diabetes type 1 or type 2 experience low blood sugar during sleep more frequently than many doctors realize.

Nighttime hypoglycemia can be caused by a number of different factors, from exercising too close to bedtime to drinking alcohol in the evening. If untreated, low overnight blood sugar levels can lead to headaches and loss of sleep and in extreme cases, seizures or even death. The good news is that preventing low blood sugar while you sleep can be achieved with a few simple steps:

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What Can I Do To Help If Someones Blood Sugar Is Low

Ask them if they have anything to raise blood sugar. This might be a snack, chewable glucose tablets, which are created specifically to raise blood sugar quickly, or glucagon, which is often prescribed for people who use insulin and comes in different formulations, including a pre-mixed version and a nasal spray. If they dont have any of those on hand, help them find a snack or drink that can raise that number.

A good rule of thumb is what we call the rule of 15. Someone with low blood sugar should eat 15 grams of carbohydrates and wait 15 minutes to see if their blood sugar level rises and they feel better. If the number stays below 70 or theyre still experiencing symptoms, repeat the process with another 15 grams of carbohydrates.

When your blood sugar is very low, its hard not to want to eat more the hunger center of the brain is on overdrive to fix the problem. But that waiting period is important, because over-treating low blood sugar could make that number swing too high, causing a different problem.

Techniques To Manage Your Blood Sugar In The Morning

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Based on your glucose levels and trends, there are a few things you can do to manage your glucose levels so they dont run high in the morning. Some of these strategies focus on adjusting medications to better suit your needs. Other strategies include adjusting your exercise routine, as well as what and when you are eating before bed.

If your glucose levels are in range before bed, they may rise throughout the night without enough insulin. This can be especially true for people who take long-acting insulin in the morning, since it may be wearing off before your next dose.

Consider changing the time of day when you take your long-acting insulin. You may also benefit from switching to either twice-daily basal insulin or ultra-long-acting insulin, or from starting on an insulin pump. Read our article, Are You on the Right Kind of Insulin, to learn more.

Check your blood glucose during the night between 3 am and 8 am. If you are running high during these hours, you may be experiencing the dawn phenomenon.

Talk with your healthcare team about finding the best nighttime insulin regimen for you. If you take basal insulin, you may need to delay the timing of your dose to as close to bedtime as possible. Another option is to try an insulin pump or automated insulin delivery system. AID systems will automatically adjust your basal insulin doses throughout the night to help keep your glucose levels stable.

Count Your Carbs For Real

If you are taking insulin, you already know you should be doing this on a regular basis. Since I am so picky and stick to the same foods, I really dont count carbs at all. I already know what works for me. But when it comes to new foods, I use the WAG strategy , which I admit is not exactly the best approach.

Make sure to count your carbs, know your carb-to-insulin ratio, time your dose correctly and keep your fingers crossed. Pumps have calculators built in to help make this easier for you and if you are on shots, you should check out the InPen, which has been a lifesaver for me in regards to getting my doses right and keeping my blood sugars in range.

A Low Blood Sugar Level And Driving

You may still be allowed to drive if you have diabetes or you’re at risk of a low blood sugar level for another reason, but you’ll need to do things to reduce the chance of this happening while you’re driving.

You also need to tell the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency and your car insurance company about your condition.

For more information, see:

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How Do I Treat Low Blood Glucose

If you begin to feel one or more symptoms of low blood glucose, check your blood glucose level. If your blood glucose level is below your target or less than 70 mg/dL, follow these steps

Eat or drink 15 to 20 grams of glucose or carbohydrates right away. Examples include

four glucose tablets or one tube of glucose gel.

1/2 cup of fruit juicenot low-calorie or reduced-sugar juice. If you have kidney disease, dont drink orange juice because it has a lot of potassium. Apple, grape, or cranberry juice are good options.

1/2 can of sodanot low-calorie or reduced-sugar soda.

1 tablespoon of sugar, honey, or corn syrup.

Wait 15 minutes and check your blood glucose level again. If your glucose level is still low, eat or drink another 15 to 20 grams of glucose or carbohydrates.

Check your blood glucose level again after another 15 minutes. Repeat these steps until your glucose level is back to your target range.

If your next meal is more than 1 hour away, have a snack to keep your blood glucose level within a range that is healthy for you. Try crackers or a piece of fruit.