According to a study published in 2018 in PLoS Biology, a regularly raised nightly blood sugar, increases risk for diabetes and heart diseases. This is also known as “dawn phenomenon”.

The “dawn phenomenon” also known as “dawn effect” is a naturally occurring early morning increase in blood sugar that occurs between 2am and 8am. As the body prepares to wake from sleep, there is an increased amount of cortisol, glucagon, epinephrine and growth hormones, which cause the body’s blood sugar to rise and release energy for awakening.  Not getting enough sleep at night increases the levels of these hormones thus increasing blood sugar levels for longer.

More studies show that getting less than six hours of sleep at night is also closely associated with obesity, heart diseases, inflammation, diabetes,  and increased death rate.

My Recommendations:

Monitor your blood sugar regularly. Ensure your fasting blood sugar is <100mg/dl

Ensure your room is always dark when it is time to sleep.

Do not work in the bedroom. Keep bedroom for sleep and sex only.

Wind down before bedtime by staying off TV, laptops and phones 60 mins before bed time