>>I have a tough job/client (just like many people do). Over the last 21 days I had three spikes in the morning - in all 3 cases, I had to work late at night on something and had to deal with a difficult user at 7 AM the next morning. I am reading more and more how much stress impacts glucose. That's going to be a tougher one for me to manage.

It may not be stress at all.
Your liver dumps sugar into the bloodstream in the morning - in anticipation of waking up.

You may just be hitting that liver glucose cycle at a different time with obviously different results.

I haven't seen stress change BG (aside from stuffing my face)
But getting sick raises my BG for sure.