Table of ContentsView All
View All
Table of Contents
Why It Occurs
Exercise
Apple Cider Vinegar
Limit Carbs
Avoid “Bad” Fat
Prevent Hypoglycemia
Get Quality Sleep
How to lower fasting blood sugar if you have diabetes involves a combination of dietary and lifestyle changes, such as exercising regularly, managing your carb and fat intake, getting plenty of sleep, and keeping to your treatment plan.
Your fasting blood sugar, sometimes called your morning blood sugar, is the amount of glucose (sugar) in your blood after not eating for eight to 10 hours. It offers a picture of how well your blood sugar is being managed in the absence of food. Incorporating ways to naturally control your fasting blood sugar can be especially useful if you find your morning blood sugar levels are suddenly high and you don’t know why.
Verywell / Julie Bang
Why Blood Sugar Is High in the Morning
Ideally, when testing your blood glucose (sugar) in the morning, it should be between 70 and 99 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL) if your diabetes is well-controlled.
But oftentimes, a person will test themselves and find that their blood sugar is high despite doing everything their healthcare provider told them to do. This may be due to a relatively common event called thedawn phenomenonthat affects roughly 50% of people living withtype 1ortype 2 diabetes.
As common as the dawn phenomenon is, there are seven things you can do to better avoid these early-morning blood sugar spikes.
Change Your Exercise Routine
Studies have shown that exercising in the afternoon or right after dinner helps stabilize insulin levels at night. By keeping your insulin levels steadier, the body can counter the natural surge in glucose in the morning.
You don’t need a hardcore workout to achieve this. Instead, aim for low-intensity exercises like:
If morning levels are still high, doing moderate-intensity exercise before breakfast can help bring down your blood sugar levels fast while improving glucose control throughout the day.
Take Apple Cider Vinegar
Some alternative practitioners endorse the use ofapple cider vinegarto counter the effects of morning blood sugar spikes. Apple cider vinegar does not “treat” diabetes but may provide short-term blood sugar control.
According to a 2018 study, taking 2 tablespoons (1,400 milligrams) of apple cider vinegar can significantly lower fasting blood sugar levels 30 minutes after consumption. After 60 minutes, no benefit is seen.
However, there are potential side effects to taking apple cider vinegar. Over time, the risks may outweigh the benefits as long-term use may lead to tooth enamel loss, throat burns, low blood potassium levels, and bone mineral loss.
Drug interactions are also common.
Limit Evening Carbs
Diet plays a major role in managing diabetes and maintaining healthy blood sugar levels. This is particularly true when it comes to eatingcarbohydrates.
While carbs are a critical part of any diet, they need to be consumed in moderation if you have diabetes. This is because the body converts 100% of carbs into glucose.So, if you eat carbs late at night, the level of glucose in your blood will rise as insulin levels start to decrease.
If you are hungry before bedtime, opt for ahigh-fiber or high-protein, low-fat snackthat can satisfy your hunger without significantly affecting your blood sugar.
Examples include:
Limiting your evening carb intake is one way to avoid morning spikes. But you also need to be mindful of how many carbs you eat at dinner,counting carbsso you don’t exceed the recommended per-meal intake.
The American Diabetes Association recommends between 45 and 60 grams (g) of carbs per meal and between 15 and 20 g of carbs per snack.
Watch Dinnertime Fat
Healthy fats are an essential part of a balanced diet. However, fat slows down digestion. By doing so, high-fat dinners can delay the normalpost-meal rise in glucoseuntil the following morning.
Fatty foods also contribute toobesity, a leading risk factor for diabetes as well as a leading risk factor for poor blood sugar control.
Rather than eating “bad"saturated fatsderived from animals that are hard to digest, opt for “good"monosaturated and polyunsaturated fatsthat are derived from plants and are easier to digest. This is one measure that can help naturally lower blood sugar in people with diabetes.
“Good” FatsAvocadosTree nuts, including almonds, cashews, pecans, and walnutsOlives and olive oilOily fish (salmon, sardines, herring, mackerel, tuna)Flaxseeds and flaxseed oilPeanuts and peanut butterNut buttersCanola oilChia seeds"Bad” FatsFatty red meat, including ground beefProcessed meats, like bologna, hot dogs, sausage, baconHigh-fat dairy, including milk, cream, cheese, and ice creamButter, margarine, or shorteningCream and gravy saucesFried foodsFried foodsBaked goods, like muffins, cookies, and cakes
“Good” FatsAvocadosTree nuts, including almonds, cashews, pecans, and walnutsOlives and olive oilOily fish (salmon, sardines, herring, mackerel, tuna)Flaxseeds and flaxseed oilPeanuts and peanut butterNut buttersCanola oilChia seeds
Avocados
Tree nuts, including almonds, cashews, pecans, and walnuts
Olives and olive oil
Oily fish (salmon, sardines, herring, mackerel, tuna)
Flaxseeds and flaxseed oil
Peanuts and peanut butter
Nut butters
Canola oil
Chia seeds
“Bad” FatsFatty red meat, including ground beefProcessed meats, like bologna, hot dogs, sausage, baconHigh-fat dairy, including milk, cream, cheese, and ice creamButter, margarine, or shorteningCream and gravy saucesFried foodsFried foodsBaked goods, like muffins, cookies, and cakes
Fatty red meat, including ground beef
Processed meats, like bologna, hot dogs, sausage, bacon
High-fat dairy, including milk, cream, cheese, and ice cream
Butter, margarine, or shortening
Cream and gravy sauces
Fried foods
Baked goods, like muffins, cookies, and cakes
Prevent Nighttime Hypoglycemia
Nighttime low blood sugar (hypoglycemia) can cause a rebound in blood sugar levels in the morning. This is referred to as theSomogyi effect.
In people without diabetes, glucose and insulin levels tend to stay flat and constant throughout the night, with a slight increase in insulin just before dawn. In people with diabetes, insulin levels typically decrease at night.
So, if blood sugar levels are low, the body will sense this and release excess cortisone and glucagon in the early morning hours to compensate. Without enough insulin to “put the brakes” on glucose production, hyperglycemia will occur.
Unlike the dawn phenomenon that can affect people with otherwise well-controlled diabetes, the Somogyi effect often occurs in people whose diabetes is poorly controlled.
The American Diabetes Association recommendschecking blood glucose levelsat bedtime, middle of the night, and first thing in the morning to understand blood sugar patterns and possibly identify the culprit.
A continuous glucose monitor (CGM) is a wearable device that measures your blood sugar levels in real time, including throughout the night. If you don’t use a CGM, talk with your healthcare provider about whether this would be a useful device for you.
Additional recommendations to avoid nighttime hypoglycemia include:
When you are sleep-deprived, hormones aren’t released during the early morning hours as they should and blood sugar levels tend to rise precipitously. At the same time, for reasons that are not entirely understood, cells don’t respond to insulin as well as they are meant to (a condition known asinsulin resistance). This almost invariably leads to high blood sugar.
Studies have shown that poor sleepers with diabetes have 23% higher glucose levels in the morning and 48% higher insulin levels than good sleepers with diabetes. High blood sugar and high insulin are characteristics of insulin resistance.
By contrast, getting a solid seven hours of sleep per night is associated with a decrease in insulin resistance.
There are several key ways to improve your sleep:
The best way to control your diabetes at nighttime or daytime is to work with your healthcare provider and follow the prescribed treatment plan.
This includes:
Summary
Apple cider vinegar has also been proposed as a complementary way to control blood sugar.
16 Sources
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
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