Dawn phenomenon, sometimes called the dawn effect, is an early-morning (usually between 2 a.m. and 8 a.m.) increase in blood sugar (glucose) relevant to people with diabetes. It is different from Chronic Somogyi rebound in that dawn phenomenon is not associated with nocturnal hypoglycemia.
It is possible that dawn phenomenon is caused by the release of counterregulatory hormones such as growth hormone, cortisol, glucagon, or epinephrine, all of which can signal the liver to release glucose. Other causes may include insufficient insulin administration the night before, incorrect medication dosages, or eating carbohydrate snacks at bedtime.
Dawn phenomenon can be managed in many patients by avoiding carbohydrate intake at bedtime, adjusting the dosage of medication or insulin, switching to a different medication, or by using an insulin pump to administer extra insulin during early-morning hours. In most of the cases, there is no need to change insulin dosing of patients who encounter dawn phenomenon.
Famous quotes containing the words dawn and/or phenomenon:
“The next Augustan age will dawn on the other side of the Atlantic. There will, perhaps, be a Thucydides at Boston, a Xenophon at New York, and, in time, a Virgil at Mexico, and a Newton at Peru. At last, some curious traveller from Lima will visit England and give a description of the ruins of St Paul’s, like the editions of Balbec and Palmyra.”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)