Low blood sugar in the morning symptoms: Low Blood Sugar in the Mornings: Causes and Prevention

11.09.202323.06.2023 by alexxlab

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Low Blood Sugar in the Mornings: Causes and Prevention

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Medically reviewed by Stacy Sampson, D. O. — By Natalie Olsen, R.D., L.D., ACSM EP-C — Updated on September 18, 2018

Your body uses blood sugar, called glucose, as a source of energy for cells and organs. Low blood sugar, also called hypoglycemia, happens when your body doesn’t have enough glucose to use for energy.

People with diabetes mellitus may have low blood sugar in the morning due to too much long-acting insulin, also called background insulin and basal insulin. Insulin helps to manage blood sugar by allowing glucose to enter your cells, where it can be turned into energy. Too much insulin of any kind can cause low blood sugar. Some noninsulin medications to treat type 2 diabetes mellitus can cause hypoglycemia also.

People without diabetes can also have low blood sugar, known as non-diabetic hypoglycemia. This is usually caused by lifestyle factors, such as diet and exercise habits.

Low blood sugar is usually defined as a glucose reading below 70 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL). Readings below 54 mg/dL are more significant and signal that you may need immediate medical treatment.

If you have low blood sugar in the morning, you may wake up with some of these symptoms:

headache
sweating
dry mouth
nausea
lightheadedness
dizziness
shaking
hunger
anxiety
blurred vision
pounding heart beat

If your blood sugar dips below 54 mg/dL, you might have more severe symptoms, including:

fainting
seizures
coma

If you have any of these severe symptoms, get medical help as soon as possible. Extremely low blood sugar can be life-threatening.

The causes of low blood sugar in the morning vary. If you have diabetes, you likely need to adjust your background insulin levels. Make sure you’re aware of how any other medications you take can affect your blood sugar. Your doctor can help you make sure that your insulin dosage and any other medications you take are a good fit with your diet and exercise routines. Additionally, alcohol usage is a risk for hypoglycemia.

If you don’t have diabetes, hypoglycemia is less likely to occur. However, some non-diabetes-related causes of hypoglycemia include the following:

drinking too much alcohol the previous night, which makes it harder for your liver to release glucose into your blood, thus causing a low blood sugar
chronic starvation
severe liver disease
certain diseases involving the pancreas

If you have diabetes, make sure you regularly check your glucose levels, especially before bed. If your blood sugar regularly dips while you sleep, consider using a continuous glucose monitoring device, which alerts you when your blood sugar goes too low or too high. Try to follow these guidelines for healthy glucose levels:

before breakfast: 70–130 mg/dL
before lunch, dinner, or a snack: 70–130 mg/dL
two hours after meals: under 180 mg/dL
bedtime: 90–150 mg/dL

If you don’t have diabetes but experience regular hypoglycemia, you may also want to periodically check your glucose levels. Try to keep your glucose level from dropping below 100 mg/dL throughout the day and before bed.

Whether or not you have diabetes, follow these tips to avoid waking up with low blood sugar:

Eat balanced meals with healthy carbohydrates, proteins, and fats regularly throughout the day.
Have a bedtime snack.
If you drink alcohol, avoid excessive intake and have a snack with it.
Avoid exercising too much at night.

For a bedtime snack, try these suggestions:

1 apple with 1 tablespoon of peanut butter
1 ounce of cheese and a small handful of whole-grain crackers
one 8-ounce glass of milk
1/2 avocado spread on a piece of whole-grain toast
handful of berries with a small handful of nuts and seeds

Managing hypoglycemia is fairly simple for people with and without diabetes, but you might need to try a few things before you find what works for you. If you do have diabetes, make sure you work with your doctor to make any adjustments to your medications or insulin dosing. Your physician will be able to help you find and treat the underlying cause of a low blood glucose level if it’s something you need help managing.

Last medically reviewed on October 2, 2017

How we reviewed this article:

Healthline has strict sourcing guidelines and relies on peer-reviewed studies, academic research institutions, and medical associations. We avoid using tertiary references. You can learn more about how we ensure our content is accurate and current by reading our editorial policy.

Alcohol and hypoglycemia. (n.d.).
diabetes.co.uk/alcohol-and-hypoglycemia.html
Avoiding nighttime lows. (n.d.).
joslin.org/info/avoiding_nighttime_lows.html
How to treat a low blood glucose. (2017)
joslin.org/info/how_to_treat_a_low_blood_glucose.html
Low blood glucose levels before breakfast. (n.d.).
diabetes.co.uk/blood-glucose/low-blood-glucose-levels-before-breakfast.html
Goals for blood glucose control. (n.d.).
joslin.org/info/goals_for_blood_glucose_control.html

Share this article

Medically reviewed by Stacy Sampson, D.O. — By Natalie Olsen, R.D., L.D., ACSM EP-C — Updated on September 18, 2018

Low Blood Sugar in the Mornings: Causes and Prevention

Health Conditions
- Featured
  - Breast Cancer
  - IBD
  - Migraine
  - Multiple Sclerosis (MS)
  - Rheumatoid Arthritis
  - Type 2 Diabetes
- Articles
  - Acid Reflux
  - ADHD
  - Allergies
  - Alzheimer’s & Dementia
  - Bipolar Disorder
  - Cancer
  - Crohn’s Disease
  - Chronic Pain
  - Cold & Flu
  - COPD
  - Depression
  - Fibromyalgia
  - Heart Disease
  - High Cholesterol
  - HIV
  - Hypertension
  - IPF
  - Osteoarthritis
  - Psoriasis
  - Skin Disorders and Care
  - STDs
Discover
- Wellness Topics
  - Nutrition
  - Fitness
  - Skin Care
  - Sexual Health
  - Women’s Health
  - Mental Well-Being
  - Sleep
- Product Reviews
  - Vitamins & Supplements
  - Sleep
  - Mental Health
  - Nutrition
  - At-Home Testing
  - CBD
  - Men’s Health
- Original Series
  - Fresh Food Fast
  - Diagnosis Diaries
  - You’re Not Alone
  - Present Tense
- Video Series
  - Youth in Focus
  - Healthy Harvest
  - No More Silence
  - Future of Health
Plan
- Health Challenges
  - Mindful Eating
  - Sugar Savvy
  - Move Your Body
  - Gut Health
  - Mood Foods
  - Align Your Spine
- Find Care
  - Primary Care
  - Mental Health
  - OB-GYN
  - Dermatologists
  - Neurologists
  - Cardiologists
  - Orthopedists
- Lifestyle Quizzes
  - Weight Management
  - Am I Depressed? A Quiz for Teens
  - Are You a Workaholic?
  - How Well Do You Sleep?
- Tools & Resources
  - Health News
  - Find a Diet
  - Find Healthy Snacks
  - Drugs A-Z
  - Health A-Z
Connect
- - Breast Cancer
  - Inflammatory Bowel Disease
  - Psoriatic Arthritis
  - Migraine
  - Multiple Sclerosis
  - Psoriasis

Medically reviewed by Stacy Sampson, D. O. — By Natalie Olsen, R.D., L.D., ACSM EP-C — Updated on September 18, 2018

People without diabetes can also have low blood sugar, known as non-diabetic hypoglycemia. This is usually caused by lifestyle factors, such as diet and exercise habits.

If you have low blood sugar in the morning, you may wake up with some of these symptoms:

headache
sweating
dry mouth
nausea
lightheadedness
dizziness
shaking
hunger
anxiety
blurred vision
pounding heart beat

If your blood sugar dips below 54 mg/dL, you might have more severe symptoms, including:

fainting
seizures
coma

If you have any of these severe symptoms, get medical help as soon as possible. Extremely low blood sugar can be life-threatening.

If you don’t have diabetes, hypoglycemia is less likely to occur. However, some non-diabetes-related causes of hypoglycemia include the following:

drinking too much alcohol the previous night, which makes it harder for your liver to release glucose into your blood, thus causing a low blood sugar
chronic starvation
severe liver disease
certain diseases involving the pancreas

before breakfast: 70–130 mg/dL
before lunch, dinner, or a snack: 70–130 mg/dL
two hours after meals: under 180 mg/dL
bedtime: 90–150 mg/dL

Whether or not you have diabetes, follow these tips to avoid waking up with low blood sugar:

Eat balanced meals with healthy carbohydrates, proteins, and fats regularly throughout the day.
Have a bedtime snack.
If you drink alcohol, avoid excessive intake and have a snack with it.
Avoid exercising too much at night.

For a bedtime snack, try these suggestions:

1 apple with 1 tablespoon of peanut butter
1 ounce of cheese and a small handful of whole-grain crackers
one 8-ounce glass of milk
1/2 avocado spread on a piece of whole-grain toast
handful of berries with a small handful of nuts and seeds

Last medically reviewed on October 2, 2017

How we reviewed this article:

Alcohol and hypoglycemia. (n.d.).
diabetes.co.uk/alcohol-and-hypoglycemia.html
Avoiding nighttime lows. (n.d.).
joslin.org/info/avoiding_nighttime_lows.html
How to treat a low blood glucose. (2017)
joslin.org/info/how_to_treat_a_low_blood_glucose.html
Low blood glucose levels before breakfast. (n.d.).
diabetes.co.uk/blood-glucose/low-blood-glucose-levels-before-breakfast.html
Goals for blood glucose control. (n.d.).
joslin.org/info/goals_for_blood_glucose_control.html

Share this article

Medically reviewed by Stacy Sampson, D.O. — By Natalie Olsen, R.D., L.D., ACSM EP-C — Updated on September 18, 2018

10 Early Signs of Dangerously Low Blood Sugar

Lifestyle

Low blood sugar—hypoglycemia—is just as dangerous as high levels in diabetes. Glucose is needed for the functioning of the nervous system and the brain, and therefore, when sugar drops, it must be returned to normal as soon as possible.

November 22, 2021

Source:: Getty Images

Hypoglycemic coma is also called “diabetic” because it is most common in those who suffer from diabetes, especially insulin-dependent. It can occur, for example, due to skipping or delaying the next meal. But sometimes hypoglycemia occurs in people without such a diagnosis, Express writes. According to Diabetes UK, low blood sugar can happen quickly, so it’s important to know how it manifests and what to do about it.

In Russia, for people over 14 years of age, blood glucose levels of 4.1 – 6.1 mmol/L are considered normal. In hypoglycemia, glucose levels fall below 3.5 mmol/L.

Irritability, capriciousness;
Anxiety;
Sweating;
Feeling tired;
Dizziness;
Feeling of hunger;
Tingling on lips;
Feeling of trembling;
palpitations;
Pale skin.

According to the National Health Service of Great Britain (NHS), if you do not immediately try to raise the level of glucose, hypoglycemia can soon manifest itself as more severe symptoms: If you do not provide emergency medical care, there is a risk of death.

An episode of hypoglycemia sometimes occurs during sleep, which can cause a person to wake up suddenly, night sweats, headaches, or morning fatigue.

causes and symptoms of low blood sugar

Astakhov Mikhail Valentinovich — anesthesiologist-resuscitator

The article was prepared by Mikhail Astakhov, anesthesiologist-resuscitator,
the highest category.

Especially for the site medprostor.by

Hypoglycemia is a decrease in blood sugar. Symptoms develop gradually over 20-60 minutes. It occurs mainly in people suffering from type I diabetes mellitus (insulin-dependent) in violation of the rules of replacement therapy. Sometimes occurs in pregnant women or newborns. The minimum acceptable blood glucose level is 3.3 mmol/L. With decompensated diabetes, symptoms of a drop in blood sugar in a person occur already at 4.5 mmol / l. In the most severe cases, hypoglycemia phenomena can be observed at 6-7 mmol / l.

Clinical signs of low glucose levels

A drop in blood sugar, regardless of the cause, has symptoms:

decrease in intellectual abilities;
disorientation, distraction;
euphoria;
drowsiness;
lethargy;
fog, flies before the eyes;
a sharp, uncontrollable feeling of hunger.

When examining a patient, sweating, a jump in blood pressure, tachycardia, and pallor of the skin are detected. When a hypoglycemic coma occurs – a violation of breathing, consciousness, heart rhythm.

Causes of low blood sugar

The most common cause of low blood glucose – lack of food intake after injection of insulin in patients with diabetes mellitus. These cases account for about 90% of all episodes of diagnosed hypoglycemia. The hormone, entering the bloodstream, promotes the breakdown and absorption of carbohydrates by tissues. At the same time, their plasma level is critically reduced. Signs of pathology occur with a sharp drop in sugar levels from high numbers to low or normal levels for a healthy person (for example, from 18-19up to 5-6 mmol/l in diabetics).

Other possible causes of a sharp drop in blood sugar in patients with diabetes include:

Insulin overdose . Occurs when the doctor chooses the wrong dosages or makes mistakes when typing the drug into the syringe. It occurs predominantly in people who have recently started a course of replacement therapy . The severity of the pathology directly depends on how much the required dose of the drug was exceeded.
Increased physical activity . During the performance of physical work, the body spends energy, which is replenished by the breakdown of carbohydrates. If a dose of insulin was administered to , after which people began to play sports or work, mild to moderate hypoglycemia may develop.
Alcohol intake . Regular consumption of alcoholic beverages leads to a violation of carbohydrate metabolism in the liver. The body is unable to synthesize glucose from proteins and maintain its required level in the internal environment. This is one of the common causes of low blood sugar in men .

Neonatal hypoglycemia

Causes of low blood sugar in children of the initial period of life:

neonatal syndrome from a mother with classic or gestational diabetes;
neonatal diabetes;
iatrogenic neonatal hypoglycemia;
other transient and unspecified disorders of carbohydrate metabolism.

Such violations are due to the peculiarities of the production and consumption of sugars by the child’s body. Glucose intake in the early postnatal period is about 7 g/kg body weight per day. Its insufficient intake provokes the activation of the processes of glycogenolysis and glucogenogenesis, which in the future may have unpredictable consequences.

Hypoglycemia in a healthy person

Sometimes blood sugar drops in pregnant women. This is due to hormonal changes in the body, in which there is hyperproduction of insulin by the pancreas. In addition, the cause of low blood sugar in a woman may be malnutrition. The fetus consumes a fairly large amount of glucose. If the consumption is not compensated by food, the concentration of sugars in the internal environment decreases.

In people without diabetes, insulinoma, a hormone-producing tumor of the pancreas, causes hypoglycemia. At the same time, the concentration of insulin in the body increases, the content of sugars decreases.

Low blood sugar in the morning symptoms: Low Blood Sugar in the Mornings: Causes and Prevention

Low Blood Sugar in the Mornings: Causes and Prevention

How we reviewed this article:

Read this next

Low Blood Sugar in the Mornings: Causes and Prevention

How we reviewed this article:

Read this next

10 Early Signs of Dangerously Low Blood Sugar

causes and symptoms of low blood sugar

Contents:

Clinical signs of low glucose levels

Causes of low blood sugar

Neonatal hypoglycemia

Hypoglycemia in a healthy person

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