There’s a prolonged record of issues that may simply spike your blood sugar, however the Somogyi Impact may be one of many strangest.
Let’s take a better take a look at what Somogyi Impact actually is and the way to deal with it if it occurs to you.
What’s the Somogyi Impact?
The Somogyi Impact is once you expertise a extreme low blood sugar adopted by a big spike — that you simply don’t discover till you get up — throughout your sleep.
Through the Somogyi Impact, the extreme low blood sugar happens with out waking you from a deep sleep. Then your liver responds by releasing saved glycogen and breaking it down into glucose to convey your blood sugar again as much as a protected degree.
What you’ll discover because the particular person experiencing it’s merely going to mattress with a blood sugar that isn’t low, and waking up with a really excessive blood sugar — typically above 250 mg/dL — with none clear rationalization for the spike.
That is your physique’s self-protection. However it solely happens when the low blood sugar is extreme sufficient to set off that dump of glycogen out of your liver.
This physiological glycogen “backup plan” also can happen at different occasions of day however Somogyi Impact refers particularly to the extreme low and rebounding excessive that happens whilst you sleep.
What causes a Somogyi Impact to happen?
In brief, it’s the results of getting extra insulin than your physique wanted together with different variables.
- An excessive amount of insulin taken shortly earlier than or after train
- An excessive amount of insulin taken with meals
- An excessive amount of insulin to right a excessive blood sugar
- Taking insulin however forgetting to eat
- Taking a non-insulin medicine that lowers blood sugar
- A malfunction in your insulin pump
- Unintentionally taking the mistaken dose/sort of insulin
Simply as you juggle the numerous variables of blood sugar administration all day lengthy, the Somogyi Impact is likely one of the extra extreme penalties of maximum blood sugar fluctuations.
Understand that rapid-acting insulin stays in your physique for about 4 hours, which suggests the insulin you took at 9 p.m. might result in a extreme low blood sugar at midnight or 1 a.m.
This blood sugar and insulin juggling act isn’t simple!
When you suppose you’ve skilled the Somogyi Impact…
Sadly, there are various issues that might trigger a excessive blood sugar within the morning.
Pinpointing the numerous variables which may have affected your blood sugar isn’t easy, and the Somogyi Impact most likely (and hopefully) isn’t taking place to you time and again with out you waking in some unspecified time in the future through the evening attributable to regular signs of hypoglycemia.
First, discuss to your healthcare group or a diabetes educator about your concern and the potential Somogyi Impact.
Secondly, set an alarm for just a few nights to get up a couple of times in the course of the evening and verify your blood sugar.
Thirdly, share your blood sugar outcomes along with your healthcare group to pinpoint any proof of the Somogyi Impact. It will provide help to then make changes in your insulin or different drugs.
Lastly, in the event you’re not already utilizing a CGM, begin the dialog along with your healthcare group. A CGM can instantly present life-saving perception into blood sugar mysteries like this.
Different potential causes of morning excessive blood sugars
In case your morning excessive blood sugars don’t appear to be the results of the Somogyi Impact, ask your self if any of the next may be potential as a substitute:
Too little basal/background insulin
When you’re experiencing extreme excessive blood sugars within the morning usually, likelihood is that this or one of many different variables under is the trigger. You may very well simply want a tune-up in your background insulin doses (through the basal charges in your pump or your long-acting insulin dose).
You may suppose, “Nicely, my weight is identical and my food regimen is identical, why would I want extra insulin?”
Different variables can have a big effect, like: a rise in your every day stress degree, a lower in your exercise degree, or a brand new medicine you’re taking.
Speak to your healthcare group about making changes in your basal/background insulin to stop this recurring rise in your blood sugar ranges.
The Daybreak Phenomenon
“Daybreak Phenomenon” can simply account for constantly spiking within the morning, typically as quickly as your toes hit the ground.
The reason for this recurring excessive blood sugar and insulin resistance is a wholesome and regular a part of the human physique — hormones like cortisol, testosterone, and glycogen are all doing their job however inevitably name for extra insulin, too.
Many of us merely take a small bolus of insulin to account for the blood sugar spike this causes. (Personally, I take 1 unit of insulin as quickly as I get up and verify my blood sugar until my blood sugar is low, then I normally let Daybreak Phenomenon increase the low for me!)
Consuming meals excessive in fats/carbohydrate within the night
For instance, whilst you might take sufficient insulin to technically cowl the carbohydrates and fats within the pizza you ate final evening at 8 p.m., the long-term impact of insulin resistance from high-fat meals can simply result in a spike in your blood sugar the following morning when your large meal boluses put on off.
A straightforward answer for that is to extend your basal charges or take one other small dose of rapid-acting insulin once you get up within the morning.
Too little sleep
When you went to mattress at 3 a.m. after a wild evening out with your mates or staying as much as examine on your exams, your physique isn’t going to thanks. As an alternative, it responds by producing extra cortisol to compensate for the dearth of relaxation it desperately craves. That increase in cortisol manufacturing can result in cussed excessive blood sugar ranges all day lengthy!
Whereas we actually can’t management each little factor that impacts our blood sugar ranges, the Somogyi Impact is one thing you need to be capable of stop after you have sufficient data to know why it’s taking place. It must be taken very significantly and addressed as rapidly as potential.
