Shift work

[walleyedave]

Just curious peeps, I would be interested in hearing from the people that work night shifts or rotating day's and nights. How does it affect your BG?
I don't know why yet, but my control seems way better on the weeks that I am working nite shift. It should be higher, cause I eat way more on nights, because its so boring and there is alot of sitting around going on.
Thanks, and Merry Christmas everybody.

[Barberian]

I just had to quit my job as a truck driver because of working all over the clock from day to day. It really messed with my diabetes.:(

[Subby]

2 years of it, I find shift work to be a definite negative. Especially anything causing lack of sleep or poor sleep. It's going to move your rhythyms around, period. My health and BG improved when I gave away night shifts.

The effect is going to be different for everyone. As for finding that your active nights are better than your non active nights, it suggests your insulin regimen may need changing for those nights off. What do you do dosage wise? (amount/time?)

[walleyedave]

2 years of it, I find shift work to be a definite negative. Especially anything causing lack of sleep or poor sleep. It's going to move your rhythyms around, period. My health and BG improved when I gave away night shifts.

The effect is going to be different for everyone. As for finding that your active nights are better than your non active nights, it suggests your insulin regimen may need changing for those nights off. What do you do dosage wise? (amount/time?)

My BG is better when i'm on night shift, funny considering I do way less work on nights and I eat more usually than I do on Day shift.
I wonder, is it because I normally take my lantus dose in the evening. Thats probably it. I am fairly new with the whole insulin thing, about a year or so. Before that I was taking glyboride, metformin, and avandia. I have also gained some weight since starting insulin. So I have had to increase my dose.
Anyway, thanks alot for your input I was just curious to know if any body has had similar experiences.

[Erin]

2 thoughts. 1) you say night shift is "boring" maybe the lack of stress is causing lower bg's. (I never believed this until my first week at my new job... there is so little stress I'm having trouble keeping my bloodsugar up, it's all different without the stress)
2) You mention taking the lantus in the evening, maybe splitting the dose (1/2 in the am 1/2 in the pm) would make your numbers leveler over a 24 hour period.

obviously talk to your doc before changing anything.

[Subby]

My BG is better when i'm on night shift, funny considering I do way less work on nights and I eat more usually than I do on Day shift.
I wonder, is it because I normally take my lantus dose in the evening. Thats probably it. I am fairly new with the whole insulin thing, about a year or so. Before that I was taking glyboride, metformin, and avandia. I have also gained some weight since starting insulin. So I have had to increase my dose.
Anyway, thanks alot for your input I was just curious to know if any body has had similar experiences.

I'm not sure if the timing of the Lantus in the evening would explain it. Problems from that would typically arise in the early evening for those whom it doesn't last the full 24 hours. But if you wanted to just try something to see if it helps, splitting the dose as Erin suggests isn't a bad idea. (Again, run it past your doc).

I know you've said it's a boring time, but my guess would be it's actually because you are still up and somewhat active (compared to asleep), that the Lantus is being utilised better, and becoming more effective for you.

What I was getting at in my first post is that it suggests you might not be taking enough Lantus for your normal nights - you might want to again talk to your doc about adjusting your dose up for those nights. Nothing wrong with having different doses for different levels of activity through day/night, especially for things like shift work.

Take care.