That’s an interesting possibility. I suppose the 24-hour duration isn’t quite 24 hours, right? In my case, though, I’m already taking all of it in the evening and would still like a little more during the night. So far it’s not a dealbreaker, so I think I’ll just stick with the current solution a while longer.
Thanks for your input anyway!
It would be interesting to see a study on that, though I wonder how it would be designed. I’m thinking it would be hard to tell whether the overnight BG has a direct effect on the following day or if they simply have another common cause.
I am using a Tandem T-slim pump. Since I upgraded the software to their Control-IQ the pump takes over at 10pm and stays in Sleep Mode until 7am the next morning. It regulates my blood glucose with a target range somewhere around 110. On occasion it has failed to bring me down from a 10pm high, I think because of insulin resistance. And twice I have had to treat a low, because it had cranked down my basal to 0 and I still went low. But it has taken all the worry out of going to bed (how much and when did I eat, how much of that is still digesting, what is my insulin on board, is any of that still being absorbed because of a site problem, how much exercise did I have today, do I have a cold, am I dehydrated, etc). I am so pleased to wake up every morning between 100 and 130! It makes constant adjustments as if I were staying up all night and doing it myself, and it does it better than I do. It has let me relax every night and just not worry. So of course I sleep better.
My experience, might not be yours.
That matches our experience with Control IQ, we actually use sleep mode to great effect for 23.9 hours per day. It really takes a lot of the work out of things, much more autopilot.
Thanks @Chris. I searched and found your other comments on sleep mode in various threads. Very helpful. We should probably have a thread on 24-hour sleep mode.
Me too. If I’m about 150-300, I sleep like a rock. Over 300, the need to pee/drink starts to interfere, but before that, it seems to be somewhat sedating to me. Which is not a good reason to run high and not something I ever do intentionally, but as someone who sometimes has difficultly sleeping through the night, not going to lie, there have been some nights where it happened and I then ended up feeling it was kinda worth the trade-off.
That said, my aim is to be somewhere around 80-110. I agree with the people who find it easier to stay in range during the day if you start there.
Good Idea Randy!
I sure hope my tslim pump will do the same when I get it. I have 263 days left. I am tired of having to get up in the night and fix a low.
@cardamom I totally agree, not my preference to be 150+ overnight but nonetheless, I always end up sleeping well when it happens (as long as I’m not over 250).
I hope the Tslim with Control IQ works well for you as well. As long as my son doesn’t have a rage bolus late at night, we have only had 1-2 lows per week while using Control IQ, which is down from 8-10+ per week prior to Basal IQ being released. Why the long wait for the pump?
@Dee, I had longer than you for my Animas warranty to expire, and no possibility of getting it paid for before that. Medtronic offered a replacement free and I took them up on it, but eventually paid my OWN MONEY for the Tandem because I just could not wait.
I was uncomfortable with BG below about 160 at bedtime with the Animas. Too much exercise that day and it meant almost certain lows if I went to bed below that. Could cut basal rate, but often did not get it right because exercise is such a wildcard and might wake up over 250 in the morning. The Tandem stays awake while I sleep and fixes all that almost all the time. My A1c is way down, proving that I was one of the ones who needed a smarter pump. And I sleep better, with no hard decisions to make before I go to bed.
My warranty isn’t up until February of 2021. I had an animas 2020 but got a medtronic 630g for the rest of my warranty. The Ontario government pays for a new pump every 5 years.
And I bet it doesn’t alarm you to freaking death. T-slim will be my next pump. I’ve had it with this Medtronic 670g. I love Automode, but (I guess since is the first version) there are so many issues. I used to wake me up so many @#$% times a night I now sleep through the alarms. Fingers crossed I don’t sleep through a low alarm that may be one that needs to wake me.
Thankfully alarms on the Tslim are few and far between.
@PerfectHorse, others have commented on the 670G problems that are vexing you. It sounds like a problem with the sensors. Alarm fatigue can develop if you don’t think the alarms you are getting are really necessary.
I have all my Tslim alarms on vibrate, and it’s pretty feeble in my leather belt case with an extra layer of neoprene skin protecting the pump against impacts, so I check them during the day but probably would sleep through them at night. I use xDrip+ for real alarms, and that vibrates my Sony watch. It’s not much stronger, but I am attuned to it, and against my wrist it wakes me up immediately.
I do have one issue with the Tslim alarms. When it panics (runs out of insulin, for example) it starts a loud rising “boo-boo-beep” beeping. If that happens in a theater or funeral it is disruptive. So I have a little piece of T-tape on the back of the pump and put it over the speaker on occasions like that. Thankfully those alarms are rare with the Tslim and G6.
When I was on MDI and no CGM I would go to bed with a higher number. I had to allow for drops I sometimes get.
But now I like to go to bed around 95-105, I try not to be below 95 as off and on I do drop during sleep. I have a CGM to wake me but I don’t really want to be woken. I can sleep through the 200’s or more as I’ve never felt highs even though I am rarely over 160.
I know I still sleep fine with high Bg’s as I have my alarm set at 180 for night (I like my sleep and get DP sometimes). But a few months ago I was woken by a high alert, I gave myself an adjustment and went back to sleep to be woken by the repeat 2 hour alarm with an over 300 reading. I would have kept sleeping. I never dipped below the original 180 so my alarm didn’t go off again until 2 hours later and it turns out the new pod I had put on wasn’t working properly. This would be why it’s not a good idea to put on a new pod before bedtime.
I feel like this is universal for all pumps. A good number of site problems can be picked up early if you are looking, but it is hard to pay attention when asleep.
I do not know if living with diabetes and a restful sleep can be possible. I don’t think that I have slept an entire night through since diagnosis.
Wow that is rough. Is the blood sugar alarms or something else keeping you from a restful sleep?