Insomnia Support Group
Insomnia is a symptom, rather than a disease, and is characterized by inadequate quantity or quality of sleep. People with insomnia complain of difficulty falling or staying asleep, which results in significant impairment of daytime functioning. Insomnia is categorized as transient (shorter than one week), short-term (one to three weeks) or chronic (longer than three...
I came across an interesting article on adrenal fatigue and insomnia and thought I would share:
http://www.drlam.com/articles/adrenal_fatigue_and_sleep.asp
According to the article, a common cause of insomnia is the malfunction of the Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis. Since adrenal glands are an integral part of this axis, when they get "worn down" from excess stress, insomnia can occur.
This article resonated with me because an extreme amount of stress and anxiety initially kicked off my current 4 week long bout of insomnia. I literally felt the stress hormone, cortisol, coursing through my veins the first few days.
While I think negative thoughts and emotions are key factors in my inability to restfully sleep, I think physical factors are also contributing.
It doesn't make sense that I can be so physically exhausted from lack of sleep but still feel a constant, inner "alertness." I'll wake-up from a light sleep at 2 a.m. and feel wide awake. Why?
This article talked about the importance of eating a snack before bed. I always tried to avoid eating before bed because I thought it would stimulate my digestion system and keep me awake. I'm going to start eating a handful of nuts with a slice of turkey before bed and see how that goes.
http://www.drlam.com/articles/adrenal_fatigue_and_sleep.asp
According to the article, a common cause of insomnia is the malfunction of the Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis. Since adrenal glands are an integral part of this axis, when they get "worn down" from excess stress, insomnia can occur.
This article resonated with me because an extreme amount of stress and anxiety initially kicked off my current 4 week long bout of insomnia. I literally felt the stress hormone, cortisol, coursing through my veins the first few days.
While I think negative thoughts and emotions are key factors in my inability to restfully sleep, I think physical factors are also contributing.
It doesn't make sense that I can be so physically exhausted from lack of sleep but still feel a constant, inner "alertness." I'll wake-up from a light sleep at 2 a.m. and feel wide awake. Why?
This article talked about the importance of eating a snack before bed. I always tried to avoid eating before bed because I thought it would stimulate my digestion system and keep me awake. I'm going to start eating a handful of nuts with a slice of turkey before bed and see how that goes.
Some of the things to counter that stress response include your b vitamins, L-glutamine and magnesium. Try that 30 minutes prior to sleeping. If anything, you should feel super relaxed.
The effect is to keep you ramped up. Even though you may be mentally and physically exhausted, you may find it hard to sleep if you're stressed out. I'm not so sure this is any sort of malfunction of your HPA axis so much as it is your body responding to the information (or possibly misinformation) your brain is feeding it.
The best way I know of to counter this is to get to the real roots of the problem, meaning better management stress and anxiety. This may seem obvious, but so many people think pills or drugs or supplements can do the job for you. They cannot. Drugs of any kind can only address the symptoms.
Management of stress and anxiety is not strictly a medical issue. Even with drugs, if you don't control underlying stress and anxiety, then those issues are still there ramping up cortisol and causing ongoing problems.
There are better ways than lifelong dependency on drugs or relying on anything artificial.
My take on managing stress is to understand your reaction to stressful situations. It's not so much the stressful event that causes us problems as it is our reaction to them. Stressful events may be out of our control, but our reaction is something we can control.
Managing anxiety requires a method to understand the recurring negative thought patterns that largely underlie anxiety. These negative thoughts are often unrealistic, distorted, and overly pessimistic. These negative thought patterns are often ingrained and automatic, and may be somewhat beneath our level of conscious awareness.
Even if we are unaware we are thinking these negative thoughts, they are still there, hurting us. I think getting a handle on anxiety is one of the very best things you can do to help yourself sleep better.
That, along with all the other sleep supportive lifestyle practices of course. So if you're up at 2 a.m., then yes stress and anxiety may be the reason.
But it could also be that you are allowing too much time in bed. It may be counterintuitive but reducing the time allowed for sleep has the effect of increasing sleep drive ... and that may help you sleep more solidly through the night.
In any event, stress and anxiety are lifelong projects for us all. These issues never go away completely, they just are an inherent and unavoidable part of managing the lifelong process of change.
But rest assured it can be done. And by getting these issues more under your deliberate and purposeful control, you not only sleep better, but become much healthier and happier overall.
The best solution is to get to the true root of the anxious thoughts. Write them down, identify them, understand them. What you almost invariably find is these anxious thoughts are unrealistic and distorted, overly pessimistic and negative. Knowing that, it then becomes easier to be rational about it and just let them go.
It also helps to replace the anxious thoughts with something else, something positive that you want. A goal. This process is known as cognitive restructuring, and it works.
Easier said than done I know, but it can be done. There are many self-help resources that will provide you with a structured system to do this.
Or, if you feel sort of overwhelmed by it all, then by all means seek professional help. Counseling.
No doubt there is a physical component as the mind and body are connected. Adrenaline can also play a factor in being stressed and anxious.
It doesn't hit that two and two can go together. At the moment, I very much am lost and puzzled. I don't appreciate life right now.
Can you repost the link to the article? It's no longer working and I'd like to read it. It sounds like it might be whats going on with me. I've had a terrible stretch of insomnia for the past month and it's really starting to effect me at work, getting me even more stressed than I would already be (I work in customer service).