13 Comments
Do you find that staying on top of your T1D management routine becomes more difficult when there are fewer hours of daylight? Select all of the statements that apply to you.
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I experience the opposite effect. My work schedule is much more predictable in winter than in summer, so I have a much easier time managing/coping with my diabetes during the winter than during the summer.
I find it harder during summer and the dreaded daylight savings time. It throws my sleep schedule off majorly.
Minnesota living can bring challenges. Light is good. Dark is less good. Like many others, diets change, looking for comfort food. Dark at 4:30 signals time to shut down, as opposed to summer dark at 9:30-10pm and outdoors every moment!! Still doable, but I do have a small sense of tedium managing t1 more in winter. Summer more motivated because the need to rock out the daylight!
Quite to the contrary, I’m finding effective diabetes management easier despite eating more robust meals with more diversity and heavy carb foods. Yes, attempting to gain weight.
And looking earlier today at my Clarity reports, 30 day “compare chart” the statistics confirm my observation.
I selected several of the “yes” options, but they are all minimal.
I live in a cold climate, Idaho. The cold has a larger impact than the fewer hours of daylight.
I had never thought about it before. But, the lack of daylight, and the colder temperatures definitely effect my exercise routine. In the summer, I exercise (run) in the morning because of the hot daytime temperatures. In the winter, I exercise in the afternoon, when the temperatures warm up. As I aged, my ability to tolerate even slightly cooler temperatures became difficult. I find that I cannot run when the temperature gets below 65 degrees (severe asthma, and congestion).
I also prefer Daylight Savings Time in the summer, and would like it during winter, so I have more daylight late in the day to exercise and do things outdoors.
I also believe that the food between Thanksgiving and New Years is very high in calories, fats, carbs and proteins.
I live in a warm climate now where the change of seasons has little effect on daily life. When I lived in the northeast, the short days, constant power outages, and icy, snow-blocked roads seemed to make everything more difficult.
I am having to increase my insulin due to less activity. Winter means less gardening, so I sit and quilt and knit. I still walk three miles plus every day, ( slogging through a foot of snow lately!), but that isn’t enough!
At sub zero temps, I’m not going anywhere! Today with windchill it’s-29!
It’s the cold more than lack of daylight that creates barriers to my activity. It’s zero degrees outside right now and we’re expecting blizzard conditions for the next 3-4 days.
My numbers are generally better in the cooler months. The heat makes my skin unhappy, and it disrupts my sleep. Hours of daylight makes little difference – it’s all about temperature.
The lower barometric pressures of late autumn and all of winter and the shifts with weather fronts really affect my comorbid conditions, so it makes T1D management so much harder in almost all its aspects. Even here in the Low Country!