I was recently talking with a friend who was bemoaning the fact that she hates it when she has to break her nighttime or morning fast to treat a low blood sugar. So do I. And just these past two nights I’ve had to do it. I was around 78 mg/dl at 11 PM both Tuesday and Wednesday nights. I waited and watched my CGM til midnight, but no movement. Drat! I have to get up now and eat something, double drat!

Of course I hate it when I have to eat and I don’t want to. I’m not hungry and all I can see is the extra calories I wouldn’t eat if I didn’t have to raise my blood sugar.

Now that many of us are doing very low carb diets, keto or intermittent fasting, there’s even more chance your blood sugar may go low and you’ll have to remedy it with sugar.

I have to accept that’s diabetes and that’s just how it is. Getting blood sugar in a safe place, ESPECIALLY BEFORE GOING TO BED, ALWAYS TRUMPS maintaining your particular style of eating. We just have to not worry about those calories. They’re not much and if they’re worrisome you can eat a tiny bit less the next day.

Of course if this is a daily or nightly event for you, then it’s time to readjust what could be off. Did you take too much insulin? Did you exercise? Are you sick? Did your neighbors paint their house pink? You get it, there are so many variables at times you’ll have no idea.

But I think the reason I’ve been going too low at night this week is, even after 47 years with type 1 diabetes, I periodically, habitually forget that I am extremely sensitive to the action of insulin in the evening. So while it might take me 1 unit to cover a prune in the morning, it will take 1/2 unit at night or even less.

Then there’s also the, geez, how’d that happen? Tuesday night I treated my low with a prune which should have raised me 20 points. I ended up going up 60! Wednesday night I warmed 1/4 cup of almond milk and stirred in a teaspoon of honey. The results the next morning were a satisfying 95.  Suffice to say, you won’t always win this game either.

But that extra prune or peach or spoonful of honey or two glucose tabs is not going to turn you into a glutton or gorilla or put on 20 pounds. And you can always eat a wee bit less the next day. But not waking up in the morning, now that’s something I’m never, and you should never, be willing to risk, as best you can.