There is a phenomenon that occurs in all people when they begin to wake up in the morning called the dawn effect. Just like a car engine needs fuel to start and run, our bodies need energy to function properly. In the morning, when you turn the ignition key of a car, the engine starts and begins to consume fuel to power various functions.
Similarly, in the morning hours, our bodies naturally require energy to wake up and perform daily activities. As our bodies anticipate waking up, our bodies will start elevating our blood sugar to give us the energy to get up. This blood sugar is predominantly produced by the liver from your stored glycogen and gluconeogenesis from the conversion of protein and a little bit of fat. This elevates your blood sugar to give you that burst of energy to wake up for brain function and restoration.
Remember that you are going from sleeping (REM sleep) to suddenly waking. It is a normal part of the body’s process. As your blood sugar spikes, your body also produces a little bit of insulin to help get that glucose into the cells. There are other hormones that also get released like cortisol and growth hormone that are produced in the latter parts of sleep. Growth hormones are used for tissue repair and healing. Cortisol is a stress hormone but is released slowly. The dawn effect, the rise in blood glucose, should come down within half an hour to two hours of your initial early morning rush.
Is this condition something that you have to pay attention to? The answer is no. It occurs naturally in everyone. If you have a home kit to measure blood glucose and ketones, it could be beneficial to take measurements within an hour of waking up to have an idea of what your early morning fasting blood work is. This could provide information on predicting how insulin-sensitive or insulin-resistant you are.
Sleep is so important because the growth hormones are produced while we sleep in the early morning just before waking up. Growth hormones not only promote a drop in blood sugar but also a drop in cortisol. The benefit is not starting your day with higher levels of cortisol.
When you decide to have breakfast in the morning, you are adding extra glucose to your body. This is especially true if you have cereal, pancakes, waffles, and syrups which are essentially carbohydrates. The myth of needing breakfast to supply the body with energy to make it through the day is a myth. Furthermore, it takes your body about 24 hours to even use that energy from a meal. “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day” was an advertising campaign for Grape Nuts called “Eat a Good Breakfast – Do a Better Job.”
Your liver will always have enough glycogen stored under normal conditions to provide that energy to get up in the morning.
