Adults with type 1 - Do you test overnight?

I know that testing overnight can be a hot topic for parents of kids with type 1, but what about adults with type 1? Do any of you regularly set an alarm and do a 3 am test?

Personally I sometimes test if I'm up in the middle of the night and feel low or use the restroom, but other than that, I don't set an alarm. I very occasionally wear a CGMS and I do wake to those alarms after they go off several times, but I widen my range at night to sleep.

Just wondering what the rest of you folks do...

 

Don't test at night unless I happen to wake up

 

I don't test. I'm still honeymooning and stable at night. But mostly I mentally can't handle checking my son and myself both. I'd never get back to sleep.

 

When not on the CGMS, and sometimes with it, I often stay up late to deal with low blood sugars, a meal that hasn't digested yet (I often have very dramatically delayed digestion), or to see if a correction will go too far.

I set an alarm to get up with blood sugars in the night only very occasionally. The circumstances that would warrant that are: woke up the previous morning with an unexplained crazy high (like above 250); really really can't keep myself awake but would stay awake if I could for a low or whatever; have ketones.

 

Only when I happen to be up anyways... though sometimes I'll just check my dexcom.

Prior to wearing a CGM if I was having a specific basal issue I would get up and test at certain times... but having been wearing the CGM for a year, I see just how much of a shot in the dark that is, and how one or two fingersticks over an 8 hour span are just not very helpful, ESPECIALLY when you consider that any of them can be 20% (or more) off. Currently I make basal adjustments based on the CGM.. it's easy to see a trend up or down that is unrelated to what I had for dinner. To be honest if I were to stop wearing the CGM I still don't think I would test at night. It just doesn't tell you enough. (Sorry for those habitual night-checkers, but I don't believe it does any good).

 

I'll test if I wake up and feel high or low, but no, I don't do a regular overnight test. My husband was out of town for two weeks this summer and I did set an alarm at first because I felt nervous being by myself, but that only lasted a few days. (No, it wasn't logical, especially since I lived in an apartment by myself before I got married and never tested at night or set an alarm, but it helped me get to sleep.)

 

Only if I need to (odd numbers, sick etc.). I usually do not test overnight.

 

I can't deal with regular overnight tests.. I go slowly insane. I wish I could, though. I love being on CGMS, for that reason.

 

Occasionally. If I'm high at night (say to the extent of 300 or more) and correct, then I set an alarm to test just to make sure all is well - either not too much or that it's working. Usually about 3a.m. Of course, if I get up around that time or feel Low when waking up, I'll test to be sure. I imagine it'd be different if I was on a CGM.

 

Nope, the only time I test is if I wake up feeling low. I have a hard time waking up in the morning, so there is no way that I would be able to wake up every night just to test. Thankfully, my body wakes me when I am low and I do use my Dexcom 24/7.

 

After reading all of these I wanted to say- I don't very often set an alarm.
But I'm up in the night pretty much every night with my blood sugars, even without Dexcom I often wake up in the early morning- 4 or 5 AM, check my blood sugar and take a shot so I come down in time for breakfast. Treating hypos tends to be less successful 'cause it's harder to eat than it is to inject and I just hate eating in the middle of the night... I wake up at 7 or 8 AM just as low as I was at 4 or 5, usually.

 

I'm with the rest of the crowd here... Never test in the night...

 

During high school I did either a 3 or 5am check every day because I do what I could to have an in range bg in the morning so I could get to school on time. Now, most nights I do not set an alarm. I do have a cgms which tends to alarm and wake me or my roommate up quite often. I will test then or if I happen to wake up. If I'm having an off day or my last check of the night was really off then I will set an alarm for 3am.

 

Hello jilmarie:

I have severe concerns of our literal obsession with testing as a community. The results are completely bogus by as much as thirty percent each reading! They are not accurate, not remotely consistant yet we use them to treat and use them to adjust our meds on a daily basis, and moment to moment.

There are people who will not leave the house, will not go anywhere, or do anything without first PROVING they are "good" before they will act in any manner, literally.

It is a severe mistake and fatally flawed approach to our disease IMHO. If you have good cause for testing in the middle of the night, ok fine. But to wake up in the middle of the night for grins and giggles in order to feed an irrational fear of potentally going low... and just needing to make certain.

To me that is mentally unhealthy perspective... while there can be good reasons for testing I distrust the motives for most in the middle of the night.

 

I am high or low in the night about 5 days per week. Maybe 6. I take a shot in the night probably three nights per week. My nighttime blood sugars are part of overall control- why should I ignore them?
As for the problems with night time lows- when I stay low for hours overnight, I have woken up multiple times without fully waking up, and I hallucinate and it's plain crappy. Plus overnight lows cause insulin resistance.
Thirty percent is a lot but when my meter consistantly gives me numbers like 40 in the night... I'm low.

 

When not on a CGMS I test at night unless I go to bed high (i.e. over 130-140 without any IOB). I do not always trend up or down so if I trend up and start at 130 I will be over 160 at least at waking and maybe have spent most of the night above 150. I like to start the day below 120 and not spend 8 hours between 150 and 200. I f I go to be at 100 and trend low I will often spend many hours at 50 or lower. I run into trouble when I hang out below 60 for any length of time. I am on a pump and lots of knowledge but i am just not that stable 100 percent of the time.Ali

 

night testing

The only time I test at night is when I realize I'm really high shortly before going to bed. I don't want to be high all night, so I'll still take a big bolus, and set an alarm for about 1.5 hours later to get up and check again.

I do have a CGM now, but usually is just set to vibrate, and that doesn't wake me up. If any Dexcom developers are listening, I'd love a feature to schedule the alarm settings - so I could set midnight to 7am to make loud noises, and the rest of the time to just vibrate.

 

I wear a CGM so it (generally) wakes me up during the night if I'm having an issue. The only time I set an alarm is if I'm going to bed: with a high and a lot of insulin on board; or with a persistent low and I want to make sure I've corrected properly.

 

I have never intentionally woken myself up around 3 am to test - not as a child (it was moot since there were no meters then) or now.

 

Nope, and I don't hear the CGMS when I'm sleeping, it's sometimes wailing when I get up in the morning. I usually only sleep from 11 to 4:30 ish , weekends sometimes to 6 or 7.