One morning I woke and ready to go out for a walk but felt a little shaky so decided to check my BG and low and behold it was 115. (I have had spells of hypo but usually after exercise.)
I've taken it for the last 2½ weeks and it's been between 108-120. I've checked 2 hours after eating and it is always down to almost 100. I just had an A1c test in June and it was 6.

A few years ago I also had this problem for 3 months and then it became normal again.
Is this the beginning of diabetes?
I am not sick.
I have one sister with Diabetes 2.

If this is the Dawn effect what can I do to correct it?
I've tried eating before bed. Carbs, next day protein, next day nuts. Nothing I've done has made any difference.

I walk 4 or 5 times a day for 45 min.
I try and eat healthy. No processed foods and no fast food.

Any advice here.

I'm not sure you can get the Dawn Phenomenom without being diabetic- but I'm not sure. I am type 1. I do know those numbers put you in the "impaired fasting glucose"- can mean prediabetes. Generally, weight loss is the best prevention for type 2- so you are in the right place! 2 fasting blood sugars (no food for the previous 8 hours is fasting) above 126 is the diagnostic criteria- so make sure you are truly fasting.

The research I have been doing would seem to indicate that
Fasting blood sugar is the last thing to go...
That means you body can struggle a bit after meals,
but given enough time, fasting, it gets itself under control...

The bugaboo about the "dawn" phenomena is that the body
seems to dump a bunch of insulin as you prepare to wake
so your body can get it's systems up and running ...

David Mendosa's pages have quite a bit on this ...
I am unable to post links yet... but put Mendosa Diabetes
into a search engine like google and you can find his pages
He is a freelance writer and great researcher He was diag type II
And furiously has written about many things ...

My 2c.
The Orange One

rnmom2two, I don't need to lose weight. I do fast for at least 8 or more hours. I'm sure this is Impaired fasting glucose.

PSP Orange, I will check out Mendosa's website.
Actually since I posted last I've found out my A1c is 6.5. So now I'm trying to figure out the best way to go on eating. The Doc suggested the GI Index but everyone else I've been talking to say go low, low carb. I don't know if I can follow that strict of a low carb eating. I've done it before and only lasted a few years.

I've just changed to a new Dr. and will see him on Wed. Sure hoping he will give me some better info and at least a follow up, something the other Dr. wasn't.

Thanks to you both for your replies.

I've read that the Dawn phenomenon is proabable "normal" to a certain degree in non-diabetics, in that the raise in blood sugar may be the body's way to prepare for the day - give an energy burst to go and hunt/gather food.

I wouldn't consider it as "proof" of diabetes.

This is a good explanation of some different causes of high blood sugar in the morning:

American Diabetic Association: "Rocky Morning Highs"

From what I read it says this does happen with non diabetics but it comes back to normal very quickly. In pre or diabetics it doesn't do that until you eat something.

Julie, off to read your link. Thanks

Are you talking about low blood sugar or high blood sugar in the morning - the Dawn effect is a high blood sugar spike, and so eating would seem counterintuitive. In fact, from what I've been reading of it, the recommended course of action is to discontinue late snacks, at least of the carbohydrate variety and/or increase insulin or blood sugar control medication in the morning (if you're on such medications), sometimes even recommending postponing breakfast, or eating a very low-carb breakfast.

As I stated in my original post, I have pre-diabetic spike in the morning. If I don't eat it climbs, as it did this morning when I didn't eat right away, to 125. From what I've read it helps to eat protein in the morning to bring it down...and it does.
I'm eating a low carb diet and did not eat before bedtime. I'm not on medication yet.

That's what I thought. I didn't see how eating would help (until you specified eating protein - eating any carbs with the protein - I would think would contribute to the problem).

My doctor told me that only Type I diabetics and Type II diabetics on injectible insulin "had to worry" about the Dawn effect, so I haven't really given it much thought or research beyond the basics. I'm on metformin, and have pre-diabetes/insulin resistance, my doctor recommended that "for all practical purposes" I should consider myself diabetic. My husband is also diabetic, also type II - but he is on insulin. He sleeps through the classic "dawn effect" period, and hasn't had any problems so far, with early morning blood sugar testing.

Hi Kaplods! I have been reading quite a bit on the "dawn effect" and one thing that apparently works for many people is to eat a small snack of carbs and protein right before bed (like maybe crackers and cheese). Because the meal is small and includes carbs, protein and fat, this gives a small but long-lasting insulin response so that when your body starts to wake up by pumping up blood sugar the next morning, the insulin from the night before helps to moderate the sugar spike. (This is assuming your body makes any insulin, of course.)

I am not diabetic but it runs in my family so I track my blood sugar very closely. My fiance is diabetic, so I read about it a lot.

I've discovered that if I have beans (like black bean soup) the previous day, it really lowers the morning blood sugar. I have tried this over and over again and it honestly seems to lower my morning blood sugar by at least 20 points. The other day, my fasting blood sugar was 57! This may just be me, YMMV.

Isn't 57 in the "dangerously low" category? Or is that only for diabetics on meds.

thanks Julie, that was a great link "rocky morning high". Not so sure that I want to go to the extent of waking up at 3am to test, but nice to know there is that option.... I was very excited to find that my BSL was almost at normal level today (the numbers are different here in Australia). I have always battled with high morning numbers, but my A1c shows I have good control. I think just this little bit of weight I have lost (so far) has made the difference. I am also back on Metformin, which upset my stomach before. I now take it in the middle of the evening meal, and that seems to help greatly.

Thank you for bringing this up. I asked my doctor about it. I thought it was way low also. He seemed unconcerned, but it bothers me that he doesn't take the possibility of low blood sugar seriously.

I sometimes get very woozy in the afternoon if I haven't eaten in awhile, I mean seriously weak. I have found eating a little packet of raisins or other fast-acting carbs reverses the feeling withing a few minutes, so to me that said my blood sugar was too low. (This was before I was metering it.) I discussed it with my doctor, and he again pooh-poohed it, saying I was probably just "hungry". I explained to him that simply eating didn't resolve the issue immediately unless it was something sugary, but it made no difference to him. He said that unless you're a Type 1 diabetic, that almost no one has blood sugar low enough to be an issue.

I guess we all have to be our own doctors sometimes.

What is your blood sugar when you're feeling seriously woozy in the afternoon?