In this gentle and grounding episode of The Diabetic Mammy Podcast, we explore one of the most frustrating and misunderstood parts of living with Type 1 diabetes: waking up high before the day has even begun.
If you’ve ever opened your eyes, checked the monitor, and felt that sinking feeling of being “behind” before breakfast, this episode is for you.
Catherine explains the dawn phenomenon in clear, compassionate terms, breaking down what is actually happening in the early hours of the morning. As part of The Things We Were Not Taught series, this episode fills in a crucial gap in diabetes education: understanding the body’s natural diurnal rhythm and the role of hormones like cortisol and growth hormone.
This episode moves beyond numbers and into the emotional weight of starting the day in correction mode. It gently challenges the self-blame that so often accompanies morning highs and offers a softer, more biologically informed perspective, allowing us to reframe early morning highs as information, not failure.
Because you cannot out-organise cortisol. You cannot out-care growth hormone. And perfectionism does not override physiology.
If mornings have been feeling relentless, this conversation will help you start the day with understanding rather than criticism.
You are not behind. You are informed.
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