its now 3am please help i need some sleep

[leanne28]

hi all i am still struggling with sleep its become bad again for last 3 nights especially i have been awake till gone 2.30am the last 2 nights and been up again at 7am but woke a couple of times between then and i am still awake now i am absolutely past it im shattered my eyes r killing me i have got d deff b12 deff low iron and folate but not as yet being treated for hypo symptoms as tsh is within normal range i have a endo app at end of month can anyone help with this sleep problem ive had this for about 7 month now my GP has tried me on different sleeping pills and i have tried all different relaxation techniques none have worked any info would be grateful xx

[Jj1969]

hello!!! I did a 2am this morning too... i get periods of 3 or 4 days where i hardly sleep if at all... probably about every 2 weeks. Ashamed to say i have even tried to use my pain killers to help me sleep. I too am in the "normal range" most of the time! Guys on here have been brilliant but pretty stuck unless drs stop presuming NUMBERS are the law! Wish i could offer you something to help you sleep but if you find out LET ME KNOW!! x

[leanne28 in reply to Jj1969]

hi jj i didn't get any sleep at all i went down stairs til 5am then tried to go back to bed but was no good didnt get any sleep what so evey am shattered all i want is for them to just try me on thyroxine grrr my eyes are killing me my son was up at 6.30 i did try to back off but something is stopping me as the sleep pills don't even work if i find anything i will let u no xx

[PinkNinja]

Have you tried taking magnesium supplements at night? Start with only one tablet and magnesium citrate seems to be absorbed better than most. It's best to look into magnesium supplements first as some people shouldn't take them, although they are fine for most people and recommended for some. I found they really helped with my sleep.

Are you taking anything for your vitamin deficiencies? Getting these sorted out may also help a little. B12 deficiency can cause insomnia so taking B12 with the other B vitamins would be a really good idea if you are deficient.

When I have insomnia (luckily not too often now) I get up and go downstairs. I fix myself a drink (nothing with alcohol or caffeine) and maybe a biscuit or similar if I am starting to feel hungry (often the case when I have been awake for hours!) and take a few deep breaths. Then I can sometimes get back to sleep. A combination of exercise (walking is great) and resting (preferably with your feet up) can help to keep you relaxed during the day so that you sleep better when you go to bed, but this is only one little thing among others.

I hope you find something that works and that your endo is helpful.

Carolyn x

[leanne28 in reply to PinkNinja]

hi carolyn im on b12 injections and have been taking d3 for about 8 weeks iron for about 6month and folic acid for about 10 weeks im absolutely passed it i didnt manage to go back to sleep only had a hour between 1am and 2 me and my friend walk our dogs at night so i get the exercise but doesnt seem to help nothing does xx

[Jackie]

Hi I was like this until my thyroid was stable. When my children were young I used be up nearly all night long. I even made cakes and caught up on the video!Once my thyroid was stable I was fine. now if thyroid goes a little " off" I have a bad night.Most enodo`s think this is hyper! So it is the one thing I find best not to mention, it is different at night to hyper in the way hypo a problem, If that makes sense!

Jackie

[helenwlee]

I have had this problem for 22 years (since my not-sleeping son was born). Worse the past 10 years due to constant stress, adrenal fatigue, hypothyroid. Slept 6 hrs a night if lucky, mostly 4-5, maybe two nights a month I slept 7 hrs and felt like a human being. Waking up could never go back to sleep no matter how tired. The smallest noise woke me up too. Tried "everything". Until 7 weeks ago when I tried a weird diet-program. I think I realised why I didn´t sleep. The key (for me anyway) seems to be to help and monitor blood sugar levels and also sodium levels. If I understood this right (very simplified) when hypo, hyper, adrenal fatigued etc your liver and kidneys don´t work they way they are supposed to do in a healthy body.

The liver would normally have a sufficient store of glucogen (sugars) and when fasting during sleep the liver would be able to release this as needed to keep a steady blood sugar level during 8 hrs sleep or more until eating again and filling up this store before it is finished. Endocrine problems and stress, adrenal disfunctions etc will mess this up and in short the liver will not function as it should, the glucogen store will be too small or the liver may not convert sugars the way it´s supposed to any more. So when blood sugar runs low after 3-6 hrs, nothing fills it up and low blodsugar is a trigger for the adrenalinsystem to release stress hormons and those wake us up because body needs sugar in some form.

We also lose a lot of sodium (salt) when under stress for a long time, if thyroid problems or adrenal this is a stress in itself even if we don´t have outside stressors. Lack of sleep is the worst stressor of all I think! The kidneys are part of what should regulate sodium levels in the body and the kidney may not work as it should either when hypo-hyper-adrenal problems or stressed. When sodium levels are too low this is also an adrenal trigger, stress hormones are released and we wake up (I usually woke up feeling as if I had soda-pop in my weins fizzing around).

So we have to manually help the liver and kidney and whatever is not working to balance blood sugar and sodium (salt), until they work as they should again if they will. The shortcut to this is to add sugars and salt (seasalt) when levels fall.

Anyway, the past 7 weeks I have slept regularly 7-8 hrs almost every night! I have woken up approx 6 nights after sleeping 4-5 hrs beacuse of noise or adrenalin rush and managed to go back to sleep again all but one time and sleep another 2-4 hrs after that. It´s like heaven, compared to how I felt the past 5 years especially I feel like superwoman now. Sleep is the most important part of healing I think. Without it the rest is not going to help much.

For me this works:

During the day I eat something every 2 hours to keep sugar and sodium steady, no dips no highs. (I used to never eat breakfast). Every meal, main or snack, should be balanced at about 50% slow carbs, 25% proteins and 25% good fats. Always bone broth with any muscle meat, good fat is coconutfat, olive oil, butter and greek yogurt (no other vegetable oils). Extra seasalt slowly building up to 1-2 teaspoon a day and as needed if getting "shaky".

1 hr or so before bed a snack balanced the same way. Could be yogurt, consommé (broth), some berries or an apple, or hard cheese and fruit, or a smoothie with avacado, had to experiment a bit with this, still do.

Then I press 1 orange, stir in maybe 1/4 teaspoon seasalt and keep in a jar beside my bed (quick sugars and sodium that doesn´t need any digestion, kalium in orange helps to get the sugar out slightly slower to wherever it´s needed if I understand correctly). Sip a few sips before sleeping, in bed. The first night I tried this I woke up as usual after 5 hrs, forced myself to stay calm, didn´t get up, sipped very small sips of the juice and must have fallen back to sleep within half an hour and slept another 3 hrs. The second night I slept 8 hrs straight! And since then mostly slept 7-8 hrs every night. A few of those nights when I woke up after 5-6 hrs, I had to add 2 tablespoons of yougurt and small slice of cheese to the juice and went back to sleep within an hour or less except one time when I think I had stressed too much the previous day and didn´t really eat properly either.

Now I don´t seem to need the orange-salt-juice anymore at night, I probably got much more aware of my sugarlevels and saltlevels during the day and keeping them steady, sometimes with a little bit of extra seasalt and juice or something else with sugar to help up levels fast if they dip. The dips and highs seems to trigger my stress hormones more than anything, something I was never aware of before, I kind of thought it was the other way around.

Routine is important too. I seem to wake up around 6 am mostly so counting backwards I need to be in bed ready to sleep latest 10 pm, and I usually need some winding down time reading etc before sleeping so I am boring and go to bed now at 8-9 pm. Just have to make sleep the number one priority because without it everything else collapses anyway.

Wow, this was long

But I know that lack of sleep is a killer and the desperation when I can´t sleep enough. The less I sleep, the less I sleep. The more I sleep, the more I sleep it seems. have to break the downward spiral and this seemed to do it. Nothing else has so far.

I hope that getting enough sleep will help all those other problems heal too, at least have a chance to.

[leanne28 in reply to helenwlee]

hi thank u i didn't manage to get back to sleep so only had an hour im absolutely exhausted im luck if i get 4-5 hrs a night and i always wake up in-between may be 2 to 3 times its horrendous thanks for the great advice xx

[Sam75]

Poor you....I dont have an answer but I realy do realy feel sorry for you, if you were on thyroxine Id say your dose was a bit high, but obvously that isnt the cause.

I hope you get sorted soon, nothing worse than lack of sleep.

calming thoughts to you X

[JemBron]

A prolonged problem for me when running hyper - better now though.

Epsom Salt bath; taking Magnesium supps; and Bs, esp B12. Also Seratone....I am two-thirds through a 30-day bottle and am sleeping really well - no interrupted sleep each night. Higher Nature also do a Calcium and Magnesium drink - which I have not tried - but look interesting...highernature.co.uk/Categori...

Having a B12 deficiency can cause sleep problems as can adrenal (stress) problems....both listed under symptoms.

[waveylines]

I agree with other comments -low vit b12 and low vit D messes up your sleep. i was exactly the same as you. Once I restored by my vit D and b12 levels i have slept like a baby -no more running to the loo in the night or constant waking or finding it difficult going to sleep. Before I would wake up in the morning feeling exhausted! Has your GP not prescribed you vit D capsules and vit B12 injections? he does not have to wait for an endo to do this!

really hope you feel better soon and get some sleep. xx

[leanne28 in reply to waveylines]

i am on b12 injections and take d3 for about the last 8 weeks for d3 and 5 months for b12 xx thank u xx

[mstp]

Try not to eat sweet things after 6 pm. I find they interfere with my sleep pattern if I do.