Dawn Phenomenon

sandmcd · #1 (**permalink**) 03-09-2008, 03:40 PM

I've read in some threads about a "dawn phenomenon". Just what is it and what do you do about it??

xMenace · #2 (**permalink**) 03-09-2008, 04:43 PM

It a natural part of our cyrcadian rythm. Early each morning our b ody releases a bunch of hormones: cortizones, steroidsm human growth hormones, adrenaline, glucagon, etc. I don't know exactly what they are or why it happens, but it does, just like Old Faithful. This soup makes us insulin resistant for several hours and our BGs rise.

What to do about it is probably the hardest question to answer in this game. My pump does a tremendous job of stabalizing it. I never had any luck before pumping.

Add to that the tendency for many of us to go low in the nights. It's a brutal combination.

morrisma · #3 (**permalink**) 03-09-2008, 06:13 PM

John puts it right in a nutshell. What is confusing and difficult is that everyone's hormone reactions are not only different between individuals but can vary on a monthly cycle. Keep good records to help get a handle on how severe your reactions are at different times. If that wasn't enough, dinner & snacks the night before can alter things as well. Again, keeping track of how different foods effect you and your system is essential.

I found the most useful thing to be a continuous glucose monitor I got from my endo to use over three days. Did that twice before I got a clearer picture of my nighttime rhythms. Adjusted my pump's basal rates and things got much easier.
Mike

Larry H. · #4 (**permalink**) 03-10-2008, 08:42 AM

After a year and a half of checking pretty often my morning numbers I have come to find it can vary by 20 points or so easily, sometimes more. I know it has to do with the amount of time between meals and some times what I ate or didn't eat the night before. As long as it stays within a reasonable range and I am seeing lower after breakfast numbers, which I amost always do, I am not going to obsess over it as everyone has issues with it it seems.

Cyborg · #5 (**permalink**) 03-10-2008, 11:57 AM

Before I started pumping, I would wake with a good bg (below 100), but by 10 or 11 am it would shoot up between 150-200 without eating. Eating in the morning would only make it more difficult to handle. My pump now starts an increased basal rate approximately 1.5 hours before I plan to wake. The rate is nearly triple the normal rate and comes backs back to my normal basal rate over several hours.

The only time I override this basal setting is when I'm drinking the night before. Alcohol tends to stop the liver from the glucose dump associated with DP. I certainly wouldn't want that much basal without the DP...

Ronin · #6 (**permalink**) 03-10-2008, 06:16 PM

Hi Everyone!

I'll add my own strange incident to the mix. On Sunday night we attended a concert and there were snacks following the concert. I usually don't indulge but,... Anyway, I was anticipating a spike in the FBG and, much to my surprise, it was a low reading instead of a high one (88 to be exact). I guess what Morrisma wrote "If that wasn't enough, dinner & snacks the night before can alter things as well. " I find it hard to think that I'm not eating enough at night.