Key Points
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High blood sugar in the morning can actually result from evening habits the night before.
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Going for a walk after dinner can help improve blood sugar, insulin sensitivity and sleep.
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Eating an earlier, high-fiber dinner and monitoring your blood sugar are also important.
If you are one of the 38.4 million people in the United States who have diabetes, you may have high blood sugar (hyperglycemia) in the morning. High blood sugar in the morning or high blood sugar during fasting can happen for a variety of reasons, including hormones, declining insulin, the food you consumed at dinner and before bed, not enough sleep and stress. If you’ve noticed a pattern of high blood sugar in the morning, there’s one simple behavior that can help. Going for a walk after dinner is a simple nighttime habit that can balance blood sugar.
Kaitlin Hippley, M.Ed., RDN, LD, CDCES, a registered dietitian and certified diabetes educator, says, “Taking a walk after a meal helps your body manage postprandial blood sugar by encouraging your muscles to use the glucose from your meal for energy. This simple habit can reduce evening high glucose and improve glucose control. in the blood during the night, and improves the control of glucose in the blood during the night.”
Read on to learn more about how this simple habit can potentially improve your morning blood sugar, along with other simple lifestyle changes to incorporate at night.
Why Taking an After-Meal Walk is the Best Habit to Balance Blood Sugar
Exercise, such as walking, can help lower blood sugar by increasing insulin sensitivity after eating and encouraging your muscles to use glucose for energy. The more sensitive your cells are to insulin, the better your body can manage blood sugar.
Lowers Blood Sugar
Elevated blood sugar before bed can carry over into the morning, especially if your dinner is high in fat. Fat can delay blood sugar from rising until later and increase insulin resistance. Walking after dinner is one way to get your blood sugar in a healthy range before bed. As the muscles contract, your cells take up the glucose and use it for energy, whether insulin is available or not.
Improves Insulin Sensitivity
Dinner meals should contain some quality carbohydrates, which provide your body with energy and contribute to your overall fiber intake. After carbohydrates are consumed, they are broken down into glucose, blood sugar naturally rises and insulin is produced. Insulin is the hormone that moves glucose from the blood into the cells to use for energy.
Of course, a meal that contains carbohydrates, such as a burrito bowl with sweet potatoes and beans, will raise your blood sugar. This is not a problem, but if your cells are resistant to insulin, the glucose can become too high. A walk after dinner can help improve the way your cells respond to insulin (increases insulin sensitivity) by using the glucose from your dinner. This improves blood sugar in the short term (in the morning) and in the long term (months to come).
Fewer Sleep Disturbances
High blood sugar (hyperglycemia) before bed can result in frequent trips to the bathroom, which disrupts sleep. A good night’s rest of seven to nine hours can impact your morning blood sugar by improving how your body uses insulin. Therefore, having blood sugar in a healthy range before bed can improve both sleep and morning blood sugar. Hippley says, “Stable blood sugar before bed helps you experience fewer sleep disturbances that can be caused by fluctuations in glucose levels.”
Not only does walking help with blood sugar for sleep, regular exercise is also linked to better sleep quality—helping people fall asleep faster and for longer.
It is an Easy, Sustainable and Convenient Form of Exercise
Consistent exercise can have an impact on overall blood glucose management. Walking after dinner is an easy, sustainable and convenient form of exercise that most people can do in their neighborhood, on a treadmill, on a walking pad or even around the house.
Other Nighttime Habits for Better Blood Sugar Management
In addition to moving your body, there are other lifestyle habits and medication adjustments that can improve your morning blood sugar.
Eat a High Fiber Dinner
Fiber-rich foods such as legumes, vegetables, fruits and whole grains are digested slowly, which supports blood glucose management. They also improve insulin sensitivity, allowing insulin to do its job.
Consuming a high-fiber dinner can support blood glucose before bed and in the morning hours. A simple way to eat more fiber at dinner is to practice the plate method. Aim to make half of your plate non-starchy vegetables like spinach, kale, greens or cauliflower, make a quarter quality carbs like quinoa, brown rice, or wholemeal bread, and make the remaining quarter lean protein like legumes, tofu, white meat chicken or turkey.
Finally, high-fiber foods are filling and can reduce the chances of seeking sweets after dinner, a habit Hippley suggests you aim to limit. She says, “Avoid late-night sugary snacks such as candy, desserts or refined carbohydrates, as they can cause an unnecessary spike in blood sugar before bed or even during the night.”
Eat Your Dinner Earlier
Lauren Plunkett, RDN, CDCES, a registered dietitian with type 1 diabetes, suggests, “Eat a meal early enough to fast overnight for 10 to 12 hours as often as possible. Sleep is “nature’s fast” and the best time to improve insulin sensitivity. Allowing plenty of time to digest before bed can go a long way toward improving blood glucose levels. morning averages for a significant number of hours.” If you are at risk for low blood sugar (hypoglycemia), discuss longer fasting with your doctor before experimenting on your own.
Monitor Your Blood Sugar
Maybe you are following these lifestyle habits and, regardless of your healthy behavior, you wake up in the morning with high blood sugar. It is a good time to try to identify the culprit. Check your blood sugar before bed and, if you take insulin, in the middle of the night, to help you determine what’s going on and whether you need to adjust your insulin doses.
You may be experiencing something called the Somogyi effect, a condition “that occurs when blood sugar drops too low during the night and the body responds by releasing stress hormones, which signal the liver to produce and release glucose. This overcorrection can lead to elevated blood sugar levels in the morning,” says Hippley.
Make Sure Your Insulin Doses/Settings and Medications Are Correct
Submit your data to your doctor; together you can form a plan. If you notice certain patterns it can give your doctor information about whether you need to amend your medicines or insulin. For example, for people taking insulin, declining insulin can cause blood sugar to rise during the night and remain high in the morning hours.
In addition, the body releases hormones such as cortisol and growth hormone in the early hours of the morning (known as the dawn phenomenon) which can signal the liver to boost glucose production, to provide energy to your body and help you wake up. This can result in high blood sugar in the morning, and tweaks to the medicine can help.
Take our Expert
Going for a walk after dinner is a simple, convenient, sustainable and evidence-based way to potentially improve morning blood sugar. Regular exercise is also important for overall health, mood, sleep, weight and long-term blood sugar management. Find a friend and walk. If you can’t walk outside, consider using a treadmill or walking pad or moving around the house.
If you walk after dinner and your morning blood sugar is still high, or exercise causes your blood sugar to drop (hypoglycemia), consider other lifestyle habits. Can you increase your fiber at dinner, improve your blood sugar before bed, sleep more or fast for a little longer? There is no need to do trial and error all by yourself. Contact your healthcare provider or certified diabetes care and education specialist. Together you can investigate potential culprits and implement a strategy for your personalized needs.
Read the original article on EatingWell