What is the best time of day to take a Lantus injection? I was taking it in the morning but my doctor suggested I take it at night. Did he mean dinnertime or bedtime?

You can take Lantus at any time of the day. The key is to take it at the same time each day and not to mix or inject into the same site with rapid-acting insulin. I will usually start giving Lantus at bedtime each day. However, some of my patients get sleepy and forget to take their Lantus before they fall asleep. For those patients, taking it in the morning might be better. Finally, some patients requiring more than 50 units per day may do better with their Lantus dose split into twice a day, roughly 12 hours apart. The reason splitting the dose is better is that the large depot in the skin with large doses results in a large day-to-day variability that is lessened by decreasing the size of the dose and the amount injected into the skin.

JTL

[Editor’s comment: See also our page on Lantus (Insulin Glargine).

BH]