Why does my glucose spike while sleeping?

Our glucose levels can surprise us by being elevated during the night. While the goal is to have glucose stay within the optimal range during sleep, numerous factors affect our glucose readings each night.  

We have compiled a list of possible causes for you to use as a reference and learn more about what your body may be telling you:
Read through and see what feels applicable to you:

When evaluating nighttime values, recommend looking back over your past 1-2 days. Any of the following factors can impact overnight glucose readings:

• High stress levels
• High glucose variability (ex: a blood sugar rollercoaster) during the day:
  • Are you seeing high glucose responses to meals during the day?
• Poor sleep quantity the night/s prior:
  • Getting too little sleep can lead to decreased insulin sensitivity the next day and higher glucose responses
• Poor sleep quality the night/s prior: 
  • Are you waking up multiple times in a night?
  • Are you experiencing nightmares or stress during the night?
  • Do you run hot while you sleep?
  • Are you practicing optimal sleep hygiene?
    • Avoid staring into artificial blue light before bed (phone, tv, computer)
    • Are you exposing yourself to sunlight first thing in the morning and at dusk?
    • Is your room dark, cool, and quiet? Try wearing an eye mask
    • Try taking Magnesium glycinate before bed
• Are you eating a higher carbohydrate meal or a large meal later at night? 
• Any alcohol consumed with lunch and onward:
  • You might notice that your glucose spikes are delayed (sometimes for several hours) or lowered 
  • This is related to oxidative priority. Your body prioritizes what it metabolizes first based on storage capacity, and since the body has no storage system for alcohol, it has to be metabolized first. Carbohydrates, protein, and fat are 2nd-4th in oxidative priority. This prioritization delays the breakdown of carbs into glucose until later in the night 
  • You may see lower glucose readings since alcohol blocks the liver’s ability to produce and release glucose
  • You may see very dysregulated glucose the following day
• Females over age 37 will need to consider the role of perimenopause and the hormone fluctuations at play:
  • Hormones affect glucose levels in a dynamic way throughout the cycle.  (Read more about this here https://www.signos.com/blog/period-blood-sugar-levels)
• The Dawn Effect can elevate levels during the early morning hours:
  • The body releases glucose back into the bloodstream from glycogen stores in the liver in the early morning hours. It’s the body's way of giving you a little fuel to wake up and take on the day. If you are more insulin resistant, you may see a larger increase from the Dawn Effect and a harder time bringing the glucose levels back down to optimal levels
• Compression lows:
  • A compression low can happen from putting too much pressure on the sensor during sleep. Compression lows can also occur due to a tight waistband or from tight clothing. This can lead to inaccurate low readings and are not reflective of your true glucose value 
  • We recommend checking for hypoglycemic symptoms if you are awake at that time, such as hunger, irritable, dizzy, anxious, sweaty, confused, weakness

Now you have an understanding of many of the reasons our glucose can rise and fall overnight, so keep notes and look for patterns to see what affects and changes your overnight glucose over time.

The key is to experiment and keep notes by logging Tags in your app to find trends. 

To help prevent sleep spikes, here are some tips:

• Track your sleep in the Signos app for a baseline.
• Aim for 7-8 hours of quality sleep every night (even on weekends).
• Finish eating at least 3 hours before bedtime. Avoid a carb-heavy meal and treats in the evening.
• Take an evening walk or increase activity/movement during the day.
• Drink plenty of water throughout the day (even including electrolytes in your water is a good idea for some).
• Consider a 12-13 hour fast between dinner and breakfast most days of the week.
• Incorporate stress management techniques daily.
• Log all meals and snacks in the Signos app to see how you personally respond. Use the notes section in the meal log to record how you feel. 

For more information, check out: https://www.signos.com/blog/sleep-and-weight-loss