5 ways to manage the dawn phenomenon if you live with type 1 diabetes
Beth Edwards Nutrition | Dawn phenomenon | type 1 diabetes | breakfast | blood sugar balance
How to manage the dawn phenomenon
Virtual show of hands: who feels mornings can be the trickiest time of day to get a handle on blood glucose levels? Who also feels the morning rush of doing all the real life things that gotta be done, and wishing blood glucose just played ball so you can get on more easily?
If this is you, you're not alone. Managing mornings (the dreaded dawn phenomenon) comes up in the Beth Edwards Nutrition clinic a lot. I near enough discuss it with every 1:1 client who walks through my Zoom meeting room.
It's a tricky time of day with our normal circadian rhythms giving us a dose of stress hormones to get us up and out, but this indirectly raising glucose levels can be unhelpful for the t1ds among us.
Adopting a holistic, 360 approach is the way I play it. This covers all bases. But it can feel relentless work, and I get that. So let’s break it down into easier chunks - here are 5 nutritionist-approved tips you can adopt today!
1) Pre-bolus
Ensure you pre-bolus your insulin before eating breakfast. We know that ‘quick-acting’ insulin isn’t all that quick, and it needs at least 15 minutes to activate. You may find you need to try different lengths of time to establish the best pre-bolus for you (+ this may be different for each meal, too!). For further specific guidance, please see a detailed post I wrote on Instagram.
2) Movement
Do some gentle movement in the morning. We know that movement is a great way to shuffle glucose into the cell (to be used for energy) and that this can happen in the absence of insulin! Try some gentle stretching, a morning stroll, some yoga or reiki. It doesn’t need to be a full on sweat. The key is consistency, so find something you enjoy!
3) Sleep
Where possible, aim to get between 7-9 hours of quality sleep each night. The benefits of sleep on health are endless and when it comes to type 1 diabetes, getting decent shut eye will lower morning cortisol levels (the stress hormone that drives up blood sugars) and improve glucose tolerance. Both are important to prevent those post-breakfast spikes - winning!
4) Balance your breakfast
And I don’t mean on one finger… eating a breakfast full of complex, low glycaemic load carbohydrates (whole grains, whole fruits, oats), good quality protein (eggs, clean protein powders, chia seeds) and healthy fats (nuts, seeds, flax, avocado) will ensure your plate is nice and balanced. Most typical Western breakfasts - cereals, toast and jam - are just carbohydrates. If you pair carbs with protein and fats, this will slow down the absorption of the carbs, reducing the post-meal spikes in blood glucose levels.
5) Eat dinner earlier
And consider avoiding late night snacks. This will increase the fasting window between meals, allowing your body to reset, your digestion to do its importance maintenance work and your insulin sensitivity to increase. It also means you won’t be going to bed with insulin on board, which makes blood sugar management a whole lot easier overnight - fewer CGM beeps and more chance of good-quality sleep (see point 3!).