Short YouTube segment explaining the 'dawn phenomenon' and cortisol awakening response: cortisol rises on waking (a normal, beneficial response) and stimulates the liver to release glucose. Stress at wake-up can exaggerate this response, causing excess morning blood sugar even before eating; the speaker advises starting the day calmly.
There's something called the dawn phenomenon. I learned this in medical school. With diabetics, when we first wake up in the morning, we have this natural cortisol awakening response that happens. You want that. That's what gets you out of bed in the morning. That's your body's natural cup of coffee. But what happens is when the cortisol goes up, it triggers your liver to actually make glucose and put sugar into your bloodstream in the form of glucose. But what happens is we add to that when we wake up stressed and we have a stressful, we increase that cortisol production. Our cortisol awakening response overshoots. Then we make too much sugar from our liver, even when we haven't even eaten yet. So it's really important that you take the time to start your day the way God intended.
