I learned more about glycogen recently as my wife developed a condition where her blood sugar was abnormally high in the morning. Later in the morning, after being awake for a while and eating a light meal, her blood sugar gradually comes down into the normal range.
She does everything she can to keep her blood sugar levels low by eating sensibly, not overdoing it, and eating at regular intervals.
When she goes to bed a night, she takes a reading and it is usually normal. But when she awakes the next morning, her levels are once again elevated. It was very frustrating for her until she learned what was happening. Somehow, her system doesn't want to shut off glycogen production at night, and it may well be related to her circadian system.
So we devised an experiment where she would awaken at around 3:00 a.m. or so, have a light snack, and go back to bed. In the morning, her blood sugar levels were much lower than before. So in a way, it appears she is "fooling" her system into believing that it's the middle of the day so that her normal insulin production is functioning, and she's taking the glycogen production out of the equation, at least partly.
But she's not waking herself up in the middle of the night just to eat. But if she happens to be awake anyway, she might have a light snack. It's not a cure for her condition, and she may someday have to take medication. But it is an interesting facet that may be faced by shiftworkers, and it's not arbitrary to conclude that the advice we give night workers about eating light snacks while at work is not out of line.
So how does glycogen production related to shift work? Imagine you are working nights, and you are not really getting much sleep during the day. You probably have not truly phase shifted your circadian rhythms, as in fact most shiftworkers don't. (Have you ever noticed how easy it is to phase back in to the normal day-night schedule during your days away from work?)
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