Are You Getting Enough Sleep? Sleeping properly?
- Thread starter Laura
- Start date
Hi Polonel. I'm just catching up with this thread now.
Often, waking up in the middle of the night and not being able to get back to sleep is a symptom of having blood sugar issues. Your body goes through all the food stores it has and the blood sugar drops. This signals the adrenal glands to release cortisol in order to bring those blood sugar levels back up. This is what wakes you up and makes it so you can't get back to sleep - high cortisol, which is the waking/stress/action hormone.
Megan mentioned earlier in the thread that constant brain chatter you're reporting sounds like adrenal issues, and she's right. That excited mind, constantly jumping around thinking about nothing in particular is the cortisol/adrenal picture. But that doesn't necessarily mean it's related to stress. Your body releases cortisol for many reasons, one of which is as an emergency measure to bring crashing blood sugar levels back up. People who are heavy sugar burners often end up with adrenal fatigue because they come to rely on their adrenals to constantly bring their blood sugar back up after a meal!
If this is what's going on, it may be that you haven't made the transition to ketosis yet, and your body is still in sugar burning mode. Because you're eating low carb, your body doesn't have enough fuel to make it through the night and it hasn't made the transition to burning your own fat stores to keep those blood sugar levels where they need to be.
This happened to me a few months ago and I figured out that I was eating too much protein, likely knocking myself out of ketosis and was having blood sugar issues as a result (I had other symptoms too, like ravenous hunger when I missed a meal and getting grouchy or on-edge when I was hungry).
I solved the problem by dropping the amount of protein I was eating. I was scared to do this at first because I thought I wouldn't have enough food (major food issues here), but experiments with less protein, more fat, proved this wasn't the case. My breakfast now consists of only 6 strips of bacon, extra fat, whereas I used to eat over 300g.
Before resorting to this, though, I tested to see if blood sugar crashing was actually the problem by eating soon before bed. I know this is considered a no-no, but I decided to try it as a bit of detective work. Eating an hour or so before bed solved the waking in the night problem. This proved to me that I was having blood sugar control problems and that I needed to drop my protein consumption. Now, after adjusting my protein levels, I no longer need to eat close to bed and don't wake up until the sun comes up.
Maybe you could try having a snack close to bed time to see if it solves the waking problem? If it does, you're likely looking at a blood sugar control problem. As I said, it may just be that you haven't made the transition to ketosis fully at this point and may need to help it along by cranking up coconut oil consumption (granted it's tolerated) and maybe dropping carb and protein levels.
Hope this helps :)
Often, waking up in the middle of the night and not being able to get back to sleep is a symptom of having blood sugar issues. Your body goes through all the food stores it has and the blood sugar drops. This signals the adrenal glands to release cortisol in order to bring those blood sugar levels back up. This is what wakes you up and makes it so you can't get back to sleep - high cortisol, which is the waking/stress/action hormone.
Megan mentioned earlier in the thread that constant brain chatter you're reporting sounds like adrenal issues, and she's right. That excited mind, constantly jumping around thinking about nothing in particular is the cortisol/adrenal picture. But that doesn't necessarily mean it's related to stress. Your body releases cortisol for many reasons, one of which is as an emergency measure to bring crashing blood sugar levels back up. People who are heavy sugar burners often end up with adrenal fatigue because they come to rely on their adrenals to constantly bring their blood sugar back up after a meal!
If this is what's going on, it may be that you haven't made the transition to ketosis yet, and your body is still in sugar burning mode. Because you're eating low carb, your body doesn't have enough fuel to make it through the night and it hasn't made the transition to burning your own fat stores to keep those blood sugar levels where they need to be.
This happened to me a few months ago and I figured out that I was eating too much protein, likely knocking myself out of ketosis and was having blood sugar issues as a result (I had other symptoms too, like ravenous hunger when I missed a meal and getting grouchy or on-edge when I was hungry).
I solved the problem by dropping the amount of protein I was eating. I was scared to do this at first because I thought I wouldn't have enough food (major food issues here), but experiments with less protein, more fat, proved this wasn't the case. My breakfast now consists of only 6 strips of bacon, extra fat, whereas I used to eat over 300g.
Before resorting to this, though, I tested to see if blood sugar crashing was actually the problem by eating soon before bed. I know this is considered a no-no, but I decided to try it as a bit of detective work. Eating an hour or so before bed solved the waking in the night problem. This proved to me that I was having blood sugar control problems and that I needed to drop my protein consumption. Now, after adjusting my protein levels, I no longer need to eat close to bed and don't wake up until the sun comes up.
Maybe you could try having a snack close to bed time to see if it solves the waking problem? If it does, you're likely looking at a blood sugar control problem. As I said, it may just be that you haven't made the transition to ketosis fully at this point and may need to help it along by cranking up coconut oil consumption (granted it's tolerated) and maybe dropping carb and protein levels.
Hope this helps :)
G
Gertrudes
Guest
dugdeep said:
Thanks for the above dugdeep, that was very helpful for me as well.
A few years ago I went through what Polonel described. A very stressful period was what triggered the insomnia at that time, where I would wake up in the middle of the night unable to go back to sleep and having racing thoughts. When my emotional situation normalized the sleep problems didn't go away, and I spent around 2 years sleeping so poorly that my body would go through these strange shacking episodes throughout the day. Looking back, these sleep patterns had been a constant in my life since being a child. I think that anxiety and stress triggered them, but the vulnerability was already created due to what you have just described.
Gertrudes said:
this is what I was going through for more than a year, though pushing my self to stay in dark. anxiety, stress, sleep issues , waking up from repeated prenatal trauma from the body ( needs hand massaging , breathing etc) that comes up after 4 hrs of dead unconscious sleep. I was thinking of possibility of going back to rolfing again( not a pleasant thought though ). Yesterday I indulged in 12g of cane sugar chocolate with nut traces, heck I woke up with BIG trauma episodes after 3 hrs and struggled to sleep later.
It does, thanks a lot. I'll reduce the eggs for breakfast and I'll think about something concerning the dinner : a little less of everything, with more fat. Adrenal fatigue seems to be somewhat hard to cure for some people, I hope I'll get better soon. This situation is killing me.dugdeep said:
Edit : by the way, I'm reading a lot of things about digestive enzymes and how they can help to solve cases like mine. Unfortunately I can't find infos or examples of recommanded digestive enzymes.
mcb
The Living Force
There is conflicting information about arachidonic acid (AA). I noticed when I Googled for AA and insomnia that most of the top hits were in reference to AA as a supplement. There can be problems when you isolate a nutrient and take it as a supplement, and serious misunderstanding when it is isolated and studied outside of its natural context.
The above passage continues on, but the real issue with AA may be Ω-6/3 imbalance. People often have too many Ω-6's and too few animal-source Ω-3's in their diet. You can supplement the latter, but my sense as I continue to explore this topic is that it is much better to get them from what you eat (especially fat from pastured meat & wild-caught fish). We have been conditioned to worry about mercury in fish, but there is evidence that healthy fish also supply selenium that binds mercury. There seems to be no end to this puzzle.
Primal Body said:
The above passage continues on, but the real issue with AA may be Ω-6/3 imbalance. People often have too many Ω-6's and too few animal-source Ω-3's in their diet. You can supplement the latter, but my sense as I continue to explore this topic is that it is much better to get them from what you eat (especially fat from pastured meat & wild-caught fish). We have been conditioned to worry about mercury in fish, but there is evidence that healthy fish also supply selenium that binds mercury. There seems to be no end to this puzzle.
Whilst I agree with what you have written Megan, my experience is that when I've reduced to number of eggs that I eat in a week (down to two - mainly in 'home-brewed' mayonnaise), my sleep problems receded. I get as much Omega 3 as I can from natural sources, and also supplement, to ensure that the Omega 6/3 imbalance is swung in the right direction.Megan said:
As you say, 'there seems to be no end to this puzzle'. :)
FWIW, I've experimented with eating fewer eggs lately. I cut them out altogether for a few weeks and then tried reintroducing just the yolks after reading that most people are allergic to proteins in the egg whites. I've tried separating the yolk from the white before cooking them, but its tricky to get the yolk out without breaking it, so the last couple of times I fried the egg whole and cut the yolk out of the white afterwards. Besides the fact the the egg white is more likely to cause an allergic reaction, they also contains most of the protein in the egg, while most of the fat and vitamins are in the yolk:
So if you really like eggs you could try cutting them out of your diet for a few weeks (eat extra bacon for breakfast) and then try reintroducing just the yolks. Eggs can be a great natural source of omega 3 fatty acids if you can find a local farmer who raises hens on pasture. A more "wild" diet greatly improves the omega3/6 fat ratio of the egg yolks (different websites claim anywhere from 2 to 20 times more omega 3 fats, but I haven't found any reliable scientific studies). If thats not an option, sometimes they have "omega 3" eggs in the grocery store that are supposed to have better fat ratios too because they feed the hens more flax and other seeds instead of corn. (egg buying guide: _http://www.marksdailyapple.com/egg-purchasing-guide/#axzz1yAeqQnTo)
I hope that's helpful.
Livestrong.com said:
So if you really like eggs you could try cutting them out of your diet for a few weeks (eat extra bacon for breakfast) and then try reintroducing just the yolks. Eggs can be a great natural source of omega 3 fatty acids if you can find a local farmer who raises hens on pasture. A more "wild" diet greatly improves the omega3/6 fat ratio of the egg yolks (different websites claim anywhere from 2 to 20 times more omega 3 fats, but I haven't found any reliable scientific studies). If thats not an option, sometimes they have "omega 3" eggs in the grocery store that are supposed to have better fat ratios too because they feed the hens more flax and other seeds instead of corn. (egg buying guide: _http://www.marksdailyapple.com/egg-purchasing-guide/#axzz1yAeqQnTo)
I hope that's helpful.
Mrs. Peel said:
Okay, back on topic :) . I've been trying to spend time outside, barefoot, every day. At least for a few minutes. Subjectively I noticed that this is helpful when I'm suffering from "racing mind". It seems to help slow my thoughts and shift my perspective from introspection towards curiosity about the environment around me. Perhaps this shift in attention is due to a change in cortisol levels, as observed in the referenced paper? I was thinking that its interesting that we use the term "grounded" to refer to someone who is calm and centered. It seems there may be a literal aspect to this idea.
LQB said:
Yes, you beat me to the next step
lessemf has several conducting fabrics that might do the job. You would want something that can be pulled tight under the bedsheet, put an alligator clip on it, and run the wire to receptacle ground. The only concern I have with that is that you make sure your wiring is up to code, and that there are no neutral paths to ground (can be tested with a gauss meter). Also, in case of an electrical storm, you would want to unclip the connection - just to be safe. You could also just run a separate wire from a new ground rod outside - eliminating any worry about the house wiring.Doing it this way should be essentially the same as sleeping directly on the ground.
[/quote]
I can't help but doubt the effectiveness of those fabrics to provide a solid ground. I don't know much about electricity outside of electric farm fencing applications, but having a really good ground is a really important part of setting up a "hot" fence. I think I'm going to try a piece of aluminum insect screen cut to fit my mattress and set under my mattress pad. Aluminum is less conductive than copper but much cheaper and probably more conductive than one of those fabrics, osit.
Seamas said:
I don't think putting it under your mattress pad is going to do anything. It has to be in contact with your skin or else the grounding does nothing. Think about the fact that wearing shoes, even though you're in close proximity to the ground, keeps you from being grounded when walking on the earth. The aluminum would also need to be connected to a ground source. Those grounding sheets, at least the ones I've looked into, are good because they plug into the ground of an electrical outlet (although you should always test the ground connection first to make sure it is actually grounded. Sometimes older buildings don't have the ground outlet actually grounded).