There’s a prolonged checklist of issues that may simply spike your blood sugar, however the Somogyi Impact is likely to be one of many strangest.
Let’s take a more in-depth have 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 just 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 stage.
What you’ll discover because the individual 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” may happen at different instances of day however Somogyi Impact refers particularly to the extreme low and rebounding excessive that happens when you sleep.
What causes a Somogyi Impact to happen?
Briefly, 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 remedy that lowers blood sugar
- A malfunction in your insulin pump
- Unintentionally taking the unsuitable dose/kind of insulin
Simply as you juggle the numerous variables of blood sugar administration all day lengthy, the Somogyi Impact is among the extra extreme penalties of maximum blood sugar fluctuations.
Remember that rapid-acting insulin stays in your physique for about 4 hours, which implies the insulin you took at 9 p.m. may result in a extreme low blood sugar at midnight or 1 a.m.
This blood sugar and insulin juggling act isn’t simple!
In the event you assume you’ve skilled the Somogyi Impact…
Sadly, there are numerous issues that might trigger a excessive blood sugar within the morning.
Pinpointing the numerous variables that may have affected your blood sugar isn’t easy, and the Somogyi Impact in all probability (and hopefully) isn’t taking place to you time and again with out you waking in some unspecified time in the future throughout the evening because of regular signs of hypoglycemia.
First, speak to your healthcare workforce or a diabetes educator about your concern and the potential Somogyi Impact.
Secondly, set an alarm for a number of nights to get up a couple of times in the midst of the evening and examine your blood sugar.
Thirdly, share your blood sugar outcomes together with your healthcare workforce to pinpoint any proof of the Somogyi Impact. It will show you how to then make changes in your insulin or different drugs.
Lastly, when you’re not already utilizing a CGM, begin the dialog together with your healthcare workforce. 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 is likely to be potential as an alternative:
Too little basal/background insulin
In the event 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 (by way of the basal charges in your pump or your long-acting insulin dose).
You would possibly assume, “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 day by day stress stage, a lower in your exercise stage, or a brand new remedy you’re taking.
Speak to your healthcare workforce about making changes in your basal/background insulin to forestall this recurring rise in your blood sugar ranges.
The Daybreak Phenomenon
“Daybreak Phenomenon” can simply account for persistently spiking within the morning, usually as quickly as your ft 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 examine my blood sugar until my blood sugar is low, then I often let Daybreak Phenomenon elevate the low for me!)
Consuming meals excessive in fats/carbohydrate within the night
For instance, when 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 subsequent 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
In the event you went to mattress at 3 a.m. after a wild evening out with your folks or staying as much as research on your exams, your physique isn’t going to thanks. As a substitute, it responds by producing extra cortisol to compensate for the shortage of relaxation it desperately craves. That enhance 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 to stop after you have sufficient info to know why it’s taking place. It ought to be taken very critically and addressed as shortly as potential.
