Erratic work/school schedules and eating or exercising irregularly can lead to erratic blood sugars. Maybe you’ve switched to third shift at work, or started a new job, or added exercise to an already busy schedule. A variable lifestyle can challenge anyone’s self-management skills.
A more stable lifestyle will improve blood sugar control. Once you’ve established a baseline of more consistent blood sugars, you can gradually introduce some variability in your lifestyle. A flexible lifestyle requires that you test more often, record your blood sugars, and make the appropriate insulin dose adjustments.
Some general tips:
- Keep good records and routinely review them.
- Try to keep regular meal times — when possible, eat the same number of carbohydrates at the same time of day.
- Get regular exercise at the same time of day — even for a few minutes.
- If you work an overnight shift, or rotating shifts, seek help from your diabetes care team, especially if you’re on insulin.
- Get plenty of sleep so that what happened to my son doesn’t happen to you. His story could have ended up differently.
- Monitor your blood sugar before you drive and every 2 hours thereafter. If your blood sugar is less than 100 mg/dl (5.5 mmol/l) have a snack before
