The Simple Nighttime Habit that May Balance Blood Sugar

If you are one of the 38.4 million people in the United States who have diabetes, you may experience high blood sugar (hyperglycemia) in the morning. Morning high blood sugar or fasting high blood sugar can happen for a variety of reasons, including hormones, waning insulin, the food you’ve consumed at dinner and before bed, not enough sleep and stress. If you’ve noticed a pattern of high blood sugars in the morning, there is one simple behavior that may help. Going for a walk after dinner is a simple nighttime habit that may balance blood sugar.

Kaitlin Hippley, M.Ed., RDN, LD, CDCES, a registered dietitian and certified diabetes educator, says, “Taking a walk after dinner helps your body manage post-meal blood sugar by encouraging your muscles to use the glucose from your meal for energy. This simple habit can reduce evening high blood glucose, support steadier overnight glucose and improve overall blood sugar control.”

Read on to learn more about how this simple habit can potentially improve your morning blood sugar, plus other simple lifestyle changes to incorporate at night.

Why Taking a Walk After Dinner Is the Best Habit to Balance Blood Sugar

Exercise, such as walking, can help lower blood sugar by increasing insulin sensitivity after eating and prompting your muscles to use glucose for energy. The more sensitive your cells are to insulin, the better your body can manage blood sugar.

Lowers Blood Sugar

Elevated blood sugars before bed can carry over into the morning, especially if your nighttime meal is high in fat. Fat can delay blood sugar from rising until later and increase insulin resistance. Walking after dinner is one way to get your blood sugar in a healthy range before bed. As muscles contract, your cells take up glucose and use it for energy, whether insulin is available or not.

Improves Insulin Sensitivity

Dinner meals should contain some quality carbohydrates, which provide your body with energy and contribute to your overall fiber intake. After carbohydrates are consumed, they are broken down into glucose, blood sugar rises naturally and insulin is produced. Insulin is the hormone that shuttles glucose from the blood to the cells to use for energy.

Naturally, a meal that contains carbohydrates, like a burrito bowl with sweet potato and beans, will raise your blood sugar. That is not a problem, but if your cells are resistant to insulin, glucose can become too high. A walk after dinner can help improve the way your cells respond to insulin (increase insulin sensitivity) by utilizing glucose from your dinner meal. This improves blood sugar in the short-term (morning) and long-term (months to come).

Fewer Sleep Disturbances

High blood sugars (hyperglycemia) before bed can result in frequent trips to the bathroom, impairing sleep. A good night’s rest of seven to nine hours can impact your morning blood sugar by improving how your body uses insulin. Therefore, having blood sugar at a healthy range before bed can improve both sleep and morning blood sugar. Hippley says, “A stable blood sugar before bed helps you experience fewer sleep disturbances that can be caused by fluctuations in glucose levels.” 

Not only will walking help with blood sugar for sleep, regular exercise is also linked with better sleep quality—helping people fall asleep faster and for longer.

It’s an Easy, Sustainable and Convenient Form of Exercise

Consistent exercise can have an impact on overall blood glucose management. Walking after dinner is an easy, sustainable and convenient form of exercise that most people can do in their neighborhood, on a treadmill, on a walking pad or even around the house.

Other Nighttime Habits for Better Blood Sugar Management

In addition to moving your body, there are other lifestyle habits and medication adjustments that can improve your morning blood sugar.

Eat a High-Fiber Dinner

High-fiber foods like legumes, vegetables, fruits and whole grains are digested slowly, which supports blood glucose management. They also improve insulin sensitivity, allowing insulin to do its job.

Consuming a high-fiber dinner can support blood glucose before bed and into the morning hours. A simple way to eat more fiber at dinner is to practice the plate method. Aim to make half of your plate nonstarchy vegetables like spinach, kale, collard greens or cauliflower, make one-quarter quality carbohydrate such as quinoa, brown rice, or whole-grain bread, and make the remaining quarter lean protein like legumes, tofu, white meat chicken or turkey.

Lastly, foods high in fiber are filling and can reduce the chances of seeking out sweets after dinner, a habit Hippley suggests you aim to limit. She says, “Avoid late-night sugary snacks like candy, desserts or refined carbs, as they can cause an unnecessary rise in blood sugar before bed or even overnight.”

Eat Your Dinner Earlier

Lauren Plunkett, RDN, CDCES, a registered dietitian with type 1 diabetes, suggests, “Eat dinner early enough to fast overnight for 10 to 12 hours as often as possible. Sleeping is ‘nature’s fast’ and the best time to improve insulin sensitivity. Allowing plenty of time to digest before bed can help a great deal to improve morning blood glucose levels. This habit can also result in improved blood glucose averages for a significant number of hours.” If you are at risk for low blood sugar (hypoglycemia), discuss longer fasts with your doctor before experimenting on your own.

Monitor Your Blood Sugar

Perhaps you are following these lifestyle habits and, regardless of your healthy behaviors, you wake up in the morning with high blood sugar. It is a good time to try to identify the culprit. Check your blood sugar before bed and, if you take insulin, in the middle of the night, to help you determine what is going on and if you need to adjust your insulin doses.

You could be experiencing something called the Somogyi effect, a condition “that occurs when blood sugar drops too low during the night and the body responds by releasing stress hormones, which signal the liver to produce and release glucose. This overcorrection can lead to elevated morning blood sugar levels,” says Hippley.

Make Sure Your Insulin Doses/Settings and Medications Are Correct

Present your data to your doctor; together you can form a plan. Noticing certain patterns can give your doctor information as to whether you need to amend your medicines or insulin. For example, for people who take insulin, waning insulin can cause blood sugar to rise overnight and stay high into the morning hours.

In addition, the body releases hormones like cortisol and growth hormone in the early morning hours (known as the dawn phenomenon) which can signal the liver to boost the production of glucose, to provide your body with energy and help you wake up. This can result in blood sugar being high in the morning, and tweaks to medicine can help.

Our Expert Take

Going for a walk after dinner is a simple, convenient, sustainable and evidence-based way to potentially improve blood sugar in the morning. Regular exercise is also important for overall health, mood, sleep, weight and long-term blood sugar management. Find a friend and get moving. If you cannot walk outside, consider using a treadmill or walking pad or moving around the house.

If you walk after dinner and your morning blood sugar is still high, or exercise causes your blood sugar to drop (hypoglycemia), consider other lifestyle habits. Can you increase your fiber at dinner, improve your blood sugars before bed, sleep more or fast for a little longer? No need to trial-and-error all this alone. Reach out to your health care provider or certified diabetes care and education specialist. Together you can investigate potential culprits and implement a strategy for your personalized needs.