[singh]

hy guys,
i have dinner around 9-9:30 and then check reading arnd 11:30-12 then have a glass of milk before sleep.Today i woke up early to see what my morning readings were doing wether i was doing rebound.i woke up around 5:20 am and my reading was 76. hmm not bad but bcoz i mostly get up around 8:30-9am i am thinkin by time either i would get too low or end up havin rebound.I dont wanna reduce my evening dose.What i wanna know is what else i can eat for late snack along with milk that can help me from going low at night and is slow digestion food that works 6-7 hours though healthy.I have heard green apple is good but i dunno howlong it works?Suggestions needed
Regards
Singh

[viranth]

Don't drink milk or juice before bed, it'll just rise your BG quick.

Eat spelt bread and vegetables for example, and drink water.

[d_k_moon]

I usually have a cup of tea and a piece of toast (whole wheat, high fibre bread) with a bit of low sugar/sugar free jam or jelly.

[DeusXM]

What do you mean by 'your dose'? Are you talking about your basal or your bolus? If your BG is dropping in the night then your basal dose is too high and you should reduce it. Unless you are specifically hungry just before you go to sleep there should be no reason for you to eat or drink anything. Otherwise you're just feeding the insulin, which is a surefire way to put on weight very quickly.

[singh]

well i am on very low dose of insulin anyway . i aint feeding insulin . my 2 hr pp after dinner r fine but bfr bed i go arnd 110-120 .but in night i drop 50-60 points so in mornin i go low arnd 4-5am but when iget up i am back at 120-130 which means i am rebounding so i want to avoid rebound by adding snack.

[Cloudedbrains]

Singh - does this happen in the early hours of the morning ??

Just I have an issue where I go low very early hrs but by time I've got up I end up high
I've been told recently by friends and now by my DSN/Endo that its "Dawn Phenomon" (is that how you spell it) and was advised to have a higher protein snack before bed, ie, something like crackers and cheese (peanut butter and crackers too, were suggested but I am allergic to nuts/nut traces)

[DeusXM]

i aint feeding insulin . my 2 hr pp after dinner r fine but bfr bed i go arnd 110-120 .but in night i drop 50-60 points so in mornin i go low arnd 4-5am

With all due respect, if you're dropping that much at night and you're eating to counteract that, you ARE feeding the insulin. You BG should remain static from 4 hours after your bolus.

If you're going high in the morning, you're suffering from dawn phenomenon, which is where your liver dumps glucose into your blood ready to wake you up for the next day. There's two ways of stopping this, and both work by making your liver think it doesn't need to dump glucose in the morning. One is to stop your BG dropping overnight from an excess of insulin - so you take less insulin. The other is to eat a carb-rich breakfast first thing in the morning, which will train your liver to expect an influx of carbs, removing the need for a liver dump.

The other possibility is that you are having night hypos, and your liver is overcompensating - this is the Somogyi effect. This is where you have a hypo at night that is untreated, and your liver pumps out glucose to protect you.

Either way, the root cause is still the same. I would say you're taking too much basal insulin. Your BG should NOT be dropping overnight.

[HelenM]

i have dinner around 9-9:30 and then check reading arnd 11:30-12 then have a glass of milk before sleep.

When you go to bed there is surely some action of the dinner time bolus working, you're then drinking milk which is adding more carbs.(and another variable). Then you're dropping overnight. To me it seems as either, perhaps both your mealtime bolus and basal could be too high.
What is your BS 3.5-4 hours after eating (without the milk?)
You will then know what figure you're starting from.

If you get you basal right you should remain fairly steady overnight but you need to test to find out whats happening , including those early morning tests Then adjust insulins accordingly.

I used to eat at below 90 (basically because I was told to)but have found that my basal keeps BS steady. I now only eat if I've exercised a lot the day before, drunk more alcohol or have a BS below 75 . Even then I only need to eat a very few carbs. A small piece of pepermint aero is my latest 'treat' in those circumstances!

[cyberus]

I have low carb sf pudding with nut pieces on top, keeps the dawn monster away.

[singh]

well thing is i am already on low insulin dose arnd 6-7 units at night in total.i was told by my diabetes educator that people sleep though hypo's more often than they realise, so he told me its about compensation either u eat over night snack to increase ur bfr sleep readi so that u dont go too low in morning or u reduce ur evening dose and have risk of complications.

[DeusXM]

Then may I suggest that your diabetes educator isn't that educated. Reducing your evening dose will NOT give you complications UNLESS it causes you to run with high BGs throughout the rest of the day. Think about it - you take less insulin, therefore you don't need to eat to raise your BG to stop you dropping low in the night, you still wake up with a normal BG the next morning. It's not about 'compensation'. People with well-controlled diabetes don't have hypos in their sleep.

[Lizzie G]

theres no such thing as a 'right dose', some people take 4 units of basal some close to 100; a measure of whether it is correct is the ability to hold your BG steady. if your BG is dropping by 60 points overnight that is an indicator by anyone's standards that your basal is too high. try dropping your basal by 2 units and do some night time testing to establish what your BG's are doing overnight (i tend to test at 130 and 330 when im trying a new regime).