Accuracy of Navigator in am hours

[ecs1516]

I've found that in the am hours, say 4am to 7am that even though they are asleep , both my boys Navigators are very accurate. I know that the manual says the interstitial fluid may be different at night but everytime we check them during that time period when they are asleep they are within 3 points are less. Anyone else see this?

[Mama Belle]

Yes.

I actually have a theory about this. You have more REM stages during this time and they are spaced closer together at this time as well, so you spend the majority of early morning hours in REM sleep. In the REM stages of sleep the brain waves (beta waves) are very similar to the brain waves that are seen when awake (alpha waves). The brain waves seen in the other sleep stages are theta, delta, spindles and k complexes which are quite different than the waves seen when awake. Glucose levels measured by the CGMS in the interstitial fluids most closely match the glucose levels in the brain. I think it would stand to reason that during times of higher awake-like brain activity there would be a more steady influx of glucose into the cells required for brain function and thus the interstitial fluid, making the blood glucose more closely match the glucose levels in the interstitial fluid.

I am no scientist and my theory is probably not right at all, but at least I have a theory, right?

ETA: I am not a huge dork, I just took a lot of neuroscience and psychobiology classes in college. But, maybe that makes me a huge dork.:o

[sweetpea]

Ours is typically off by about 20 points overnight. Most of the time she is actually higher. It seems more accurate during the day.

[ecs1516]

Interesting! What was your degree in? Have you noticed more accurate numbers?

[ecs1516]

Ours is accurate in the day except when they are going slowly up or down.
At night before the 4am hours , I find they are higher than the reading on the Navigator too. By about 10-20. But, for some reason their numbers just start matching up in the 4am hours. Weird

[Mama Belle]

Interesting! What was your degree in? Have you noticed more accurate numbers?

Yes, we have noticed more accurate numbers during this time, that's what got me thinking about it. My degree was in psychology, with a strong science base. They didn't start offering the Neuroscience degree (which is what I really wanted) until my senior year so I would have had at least another two years of classes if I changed my degree. I'm glad I didn't change because I never went to grad school (which is a must if you want to work in the field) and now I have zero interest in working in psychology. But it was super fun and I still find all of that stuff very interesting.

[ecs1516]

Interesting what we 'used' to do in our pre diabetes life.

Well, I used to be a computer programmer at IBM. Before I became a full time stay at home mom/nurse. Ha ha. Didn't know I needed a nursing degree instead of computer science.