Having a low blood sugar at night time is the worst. THE WORST! If you’re treating your diabetes with insulin, you recognize what I’m speaking about. That feeling once you get up in the midst of the night time soaked in sweat and shaking as a consequence of low blood sugar.
Your complete physique goes into stress mode, and all you possibly can take into consideration is EATING! I completely hate it, so I needed to share my strategy on the best way to deal with low blood sugar at night time with you guys.
So, how do I deal with low blood sugar at night time?
What I do is deal with it for what it’s, a medical emergency. So I check my blood sugar and instantly eat or drink 8-15 grams of carbs within the type of 2 glucose tablets or 125 ml juice. I then assess whether or not I would like a low glycemic carb as nicely (you possibly can learn extra about low-glycemic carbs right here). The evaluation is fairly fast, and for me solely includes checking that I didn’t bolus inside the final 4 hours. If I did, I may need to cowl that with just a few rice muffins.
The explanation why I say 4 hours is as a result of I bolus with Humalog, which stays energetic within the physique for about 4 hours. If it has been greater than 4 hours since I took my bolus, I do know that simply the sugar or juice will get me by means of the night time.
My suggestion is to be sincere with your self, and in case you can’t go into the kitchen and simply have these 15 grams of carbs with out emptying the fridge each time, then preserve your emergency carbs within the bed room subsequent to your mattress (that’s all the time a good suggestion anyway).
I additionally advocate that you just don’t deal with your hypoglycemia with sweet or cake. As I mentioned, it’s a medical emergency and also you want a carb that may hit your bloodstream rapidly. Pure sugar or juice is the very best for that as a result of the fats in sweet or cake will decelerate carb absorption. Additionally, you don’t want a deal with in the midst of a low blood sugar. You’re not having fun with it anyway, simply stuffing your face.
You may learn extra about the very best and quickest methods to deal with low on this put up: Easy methods to Deal with Lows as Shortly as Attainable
Easy methods to stop low blood sugars sooner or later
There may be most likely no option to fully eradicate low blood sugars at night time, however I’ve discovered the best way to restrict them fairly a bit. What I do is fairly easy — I attempt to be taught from my errors. If I’ve a low through the night time, I’ll return and see how my bolus and basal patterns have been the day earlier than, what I ate, and what I did.
For instance, my final low blood sugar was at 4 am just a few nights in the past, and after I went again and analyzed the info, that is what I discovered:
Because it was 4 am and my final snack was at 11 pm, the low couldn’t be as a consequence of my final bolus. I additionally hadn’t modified my basal quantity. Nonetheless, I had moved my exercise to later within the night. So my conclusion was that to restrict future nighttime lows, I ought to take much less basal insulin earlier than I’m going to mattress if I work out later within the night. That’s a reasonably simple repair. I diminished my nightly basal and now I’m sleeping by means of the night time once more and waking up with excellent sugars.
Do my techniques work each time?
HA! No, I nonetheless have nights the place I’m going low and nights the place I overeat to deal with it, however they’re actually few and much between. I’m not excellent, however all the time analyzing why I had a low and making changes going ahead has helped quite a bit in decreasing my nighttime lows. And having the suitable foods and drinks simply obtainable has helped me deal with my lows in the suitable manner.
I hope this will help a few of you and I’d love to listen to your recommendation and methods as nicely. When you’ve got a wise manner of coping with nighttime lows, please write it within the feedback beneath this put up so everybody can be taught from it.
Prompt subsequent put up: What a Low Blood Sugar Feels Like
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