Can't sleep still

[Worried221177]

It's been five days since I started taking my medication after not taking it for one week. I haven't been able to fall asleep. I've never had a problem falling asleep before. Is this eventually gonna stop? I'm so sleepy but I can't fall asleep.. Any suggestions?

[Clutter]

Worried, Epsom salts in the bath before bed deliver magnesium, relax muscles and aid sleep, and magnesium oil spray on the skin, and magnesium citrate supplements before bed aid relaxation and sleep.

[Worried221177 in reply to Clutter]

Thank you so much clutter. Am I eventually gonna be back to my old self? I really really hope so..

[Clutter in reply to Worried221177]

Worried, of course you will. This is your GP's fault for taking you off meds and it's going to take 2 or 3 weeks to rebalance now you're back on them.

[Worried221177 in reply to Clutter]

Thanks again clutter😊

[Hidden]

I'm not sure if you were over-medicated or not. I was on too high of a dose of levo for 5 weeks. Suffered terrible anxiety, insomnia, nausea, lack of appetite, fatigue. I reduced the dose 7 weeks ago and still can't sleep without sleep medicine. Did you feel over-medicated? Doctors here in the states tell me it will take a while for my body to fix itself after this. I still get upset that I can't sleep. I feel like I never will be able to sleep on my own again.

[Worried221177 in reply to Hidden]

Maryd212. Yes I thought I was over medicated so I called my GP. She made me stop my med altogether and had me do a blood test. I went a total of one week without any medication. Then she put me on a lower dosage. But now I can't sleep and I'm having anxiety. I have another appointment with her this Tuesday. People on this forum are I should have gone that long without medication. I hope you and I get better soon. Best of luck to us😊

[Hidden in reply to Worried221177]

I had to get help for my anxiety. I did counseling and I have to take anti anxiety meds for sleep. I hope your Dr can help you get some much- needed sleep. Sleep will help your anxiety issues. This will take time to recover. All my doctors have said this and they are right.

[LAHs]

Hi Sleepy. Assuming we are talking about thyroid meds (you didn't specify) I would like to suggest you hold your doc's feet to the fire to find the ROOT CAUSE of your problem, it's probably dose, one of the "nasty" meds or a combination of both. Do not let them give you any medications for all of the symptoms that bad thyroid management can cause.

I was supposed to have suddenly (like overnight!) developed arthritis, high blood pressure, insomnia, an unknown condition which caused overwhelming swishing sound in my head and ears and nutritional advice to get rid of my sudden weight gain of 35lbs. My endo told me to go back to my GP because none of these were caused by his precious Levothyroxine, my GP would be able to fix them all!

Oh, and in case you are wondering, I switched to NDT and 95% of those problems disappeared within 1/2hour!

[Worried221177 in reply to LAHs]

Wow!! Okay I will do that. I have an appt on Tuesday. Thanks

[Worried221177 in reply to LAHs]

And by the way, how were you able to switch to NDT?

[LAHs in reply to Worried221177]

I had to change my doctor. I also asked at the pharmacy/chemist to find out which doctors in my local area were prescribing NDT (I chose Armour Thyroid). You probably know, NDT stands for Natural Desiccated Thyroid and Armour is just one of them.

But try your own doc first, I did and I was fine for 5 years, then he retired and my new doc would't prescribe it, that's when I changed my doc.

[Hidden in reply to LAHs]

How did NDT solve insomnia and anxiety? If you are over-medicated doesn't it keep acting on Central nervous system regardless? Lack of sleep is dangerous. If I didn't have sleep meds I'm sure I would have been hospitalized for psychosis.

[Worried221177 in reply to Hidden]

Wow!! I'm sorry for what you've going through.. How is your insomnia? With me, I would doze off for a minute then wake up and my heart would start pounding..

[Hidden in reply to Worried221177]

There were nights I literally could not get one minute of sleep. I would get what felt like a jolt to my brain and then I could not sleep at all even though I was exhausted. I can now, 7 weeks later, get to a point where I can lay down and relax, but unable to cross into threshold of deep sleep.

[Worried221177 in reply to Hidden]

I am really praying for all of us. This desease is no joke. I can handle the physical side of it, but the mental part is just too too much. Take care..

[LAHs in reply to Hidden]

Well, this is my take - and I am not a doctor. I think insomnia and anxiety go along with hypERthyroidism. In my early days of "messing around with my dose" in an effort to find the perfect dose I did bump myself up to a hyperT state for while. I had far too much T3 in my system and that is what was making me super energetic. That was great during the day but I couldn't stop at night. I immediately cut back on my dose and eventually have found that 1.5 grains of NDT is perfect - so long as I don't take any of it too late in the day, so that the T3 is all used up by the time I want to sleep. I also find that once my T3 is used up, I fall asleep uncharacteristically straight away, just exhausted.

Get some bloods done and have a look at your T3 I think that you will find that is the problem area (too high and you will not sleep). And I agree with you, sleep is very, very important, all sorts of things are regenerated during sleep, and all sorts of things go wrong if you deprive yourself of it.

BTW it is possible to do all this with synthetic hormones but you have to find which brand will work for you, then the T4 dose, which your doc will probably get wrong because they are only interested in TSH and then you have to hope s/he will give you T3 if necessary in the right proportion. These are too many variables for most docs to juggle with, plus they just don't have that sort of time to devote to one patient. Best to take NDT where the proportions are fixed.

[Hidden in reply to LAHs]

I agree with you, but taking NDT after you were over-medicated won't instantly resolve sleep and anxiety caused by the excess hormones already in your system. I wish it did...

[LAHs in reply to Hidden]

I think that your starting point must be that of not over-medicated. Fix that problem first, you might find that that is the solution to insomnia.

[helvella Administrator in reply to LAHs]

In my personal experience, before diagnosis of hypothyroidism I was finding that I would often wake up and be unable to get back to sleep.

Almost as soon as I started taking levothyroxine my sleep improved. I take mine at bed-time, and have done right from the very start.