Why can't I sleep
 

I am going on almost 8 months of the same routine. I wake up every single night at 3am. Doesn't matter what time I went to bed and doesn't matter if I have taken any medications. I have tried a few things and I still wake up but the medications just make me feel like I am drunk. I am up for at least an hour than I can fall back asleep. I wake up at 5am on the weekdays and 7am on the weekends. Sometimes when I wake up at 3 am my body is throbbing (stomach inflamed heart in tachycadria) and my nerves are inflamed or sometimes it was like last night when my stomach and heart felt like they were in equilibrium and my nerves were settled down yet I am sitting there more wide awake then I am now.
I have learned that cortisol is the lowest at 1-4am. So if my cortisol has dropped and soemthing flares up, what can I do to counter this because nothing I have tried in the last 8 months has worked. Thanks.

PsychCentral posted this interesting paper recently...about the sensation of throbbing:

http://psychcentral.com/news/2013/08...lse/58683.html

I tend to wake up around 3 am sometimes, especially if I get to bed too early.

You can try melatonin at night. That might help.
If you get up in the night to use the bathroom, turning on a light is not a good idea. There are melatonin receptors in the retinas, and exposing them to light, turns off your own melatonin, and
then you can't sleep.

We have small night lights, along the floor baseboards that sense motion/or darkness and turn on, so that light in the eyes is minimal. We have a small nightlight in the bathroom.

I also found that antihistamines at night were making me throb sometimes, so I stopped them and it seems to be better. For some reason my hands/fingertips throb some nights.

I do think that as we age our brains change some, and sleeping becomes more difficult.

And less is required. In his 80s-90s, my (reasonably healthy) grandfather slept an average of 4-5 hrs. a night (along with a 30 min. nap after lunch).

http://www.evolvemedia.com/docs/port...leep/graph.gif

I suffered (stressed) terribly from irregular sleep patterns for years until I just stopped stressing/worrying about them, and learned to go with the flow. Obviously this won't work for everyone, but my point is that stressing over less/irregular sleep can be—and is—more problematical than the less/irregular sleep itself.

Doc

That is the same time I wake up, must be a cortisol thing... I have had this problem for several years. I was on the zombie drug Ambien for 2 years, the one where you can "sleep eat" and "sleep drive!" I finely got off it, it was not easy to quit. I get time released Meletonin, I am taking it with 50 mg of Benadryl, my doctor recommended, it helps me sleep through the night.
This is the most important time to sleep, the REM sleep helps in generating melotonin and other hormones, so it is important to get a good nights sleep. Of course, it is 1:30am and I am still awake, so who am I to talk...

Lewie.... I was thinking about you this week. In regards to your stomach... Since you are pretty sure you have the celiac artery compression, I am wondering if the doctors tried a nitrate drug on you to see if it would improve blood flow?

Nitrates (either topical ointment rubbed on the stomach area near the compression site, or oral sustained release like Imdur), dilate blood vessels. They are sometimes used to relax the esophagus muscle in those with spasms there. They do cause headache at first, when you first start them, but a tolerance develops to that quickly.

I was just thinking this morning at 3:00am when I was awake that if only they made a time release melatonin.... Well apparently they do and I didn't know about it. I will definetly llok for it. The problem with melatonin for me is that it only lasts 4 hours and it loses its affect after abit. I will give it a try though. Thanks.

Hmm, no one has mentioned this to me. I could give it a try while I wait for the surgery. Sometimes I wake up and I can feel the blood trying to squeeze through that artery. It feels and sounds like a pinched garden hose inside of me every time my heart beats. Its pretty freaky. What I don't get is why soemtimes its pretty bad and other times its not so bad. I have been trying to really focus on cutting down inflammation ( taking lyposomal glutathione, tumeric, omega 3's and eating foods that are lower on the inflamatory list) and it has seemed to help.

I will look into the nitrates. Thanks.

The nitroglycerine comes in an ointment to rub on.
You would do that where the artery is --so have the doctor show you.

Or if you try the oral Imdur, get 30mg and snap in half to start, and try it that way. First timers with nitrates get a fast response and too high a dose is uncomfortable. After a week on 1/2 (15mg), you may be able to increase as the headache will fade.
For me the headache was worse standing up and bending over.
Lying down wasn't much of a side effect. So if you take it at night, you will already be lying down.

Both require an RX order from the doctor.

I thought of you yesterday as well. I was doing some reading/research about L-tryptophan, and came across this...
emphasis mine

See also: Effect of orally administered L-tryptophan on serotonin, melatonin, and the innate immune response in the rat

And FWIW... the reason I thought of you was the melatonin/sleep thing—not the rats. :rolleyes: :D:D:D

Doc

Hi Dr. Smith,

Did your wife try the tryptophan? If so how did it work for her?
Hopeful:)

It is a prescription medication, and it can be filled at a compound pharmacy. The Meletonin is much better en the store bought stuff. I am using a 10mg sustained released capsule. I get it at the Medquest pharmacy mail order from Utah.

Oh thanks- I am in utah. My wife found the 10 mg extended release melatonin over the counter yesterday. Took it last night and it wasn't far from a great night but I have had worse. I was up every hour but able to fall back to sleep. I will give it a few more tries but might have to try something else, maybe the tryptophan. Also noticed I was back on the edge of having tachycardia that hasn't shown itself since when I was taking melatonin on a regular basis. hmmmmm.

My rhuemi doc has me taking over the counter 50mg benadryl normally used for alergies, puts me right to sleep, I take it with the melatonin.

Yes, and thanks for the thought. She started on a minimal dose (500 mg x 2/day) and it worked some. That's why I was doing the reading/research—to find out what the safe range was. She upped it to 1000 mg x 2/day this week and so far it's working much better. There's still a bit of wiggle room, but we're trying to keep it as low as possible.

I also learned it has some promise for pain—both acute & chronic.
L-Tryptophan
(Scroll down)

Doc

Not sure how old you are but a few years ago I was waking up every single night at around 2-3 AM then every hour after that, it was awful, I prayed for sleep! It also felt as though my body was "shaking" my nerves felt on edge, sometimes would have to jump out of bed.

Did some research and I am sure magnesium has helped me, I take the powdered form in the AM and again in the PM and started sleeping well again, might be worth you trying it.

Also taking epsom salt baths helps me.

Exactly how I am feeling! I been taking magnesium for 6 months now, It was defineitly helping but started hurting me. I started getting alot of missed heart beats and tachycadria. I tapered back to a dose that doesn't do anything fo rmy nerves and now I am back to feeling pretty bad again. I was taking 4 of the mag 64 a day. Not sure on the mg in each, around 135mg I think. I am 36 going on 85 by the way. I will look into the powdered form. Never heard of that.

Also I didn't start getting the heart issues until I switched over to slo mag and now mag 64, could be something else in the supplement I suppose.

Tried the magnesium again last night. Made my heart race. Took 2 ma 64. Really hard to go to sleep with blood pressure 115/64 BPM 80.

Maybe related to why I wake up every day at 3 is that on the other end, at around 3-4pm every single day my heart skips a beat. WHY?

My heart beat and blood pressure increases in the evening around 6pm. I think it might have something to do with the cycle of Adrenaline during the day.

Are you using the lotion form of Magnesium too, Lewie?

If so you really don't need so much oral. Most people do well one just 2 of the SlowMag (generic) daily not, 4.

When your blood pressure goes down, typically there can be a compensatory increase in heart rate. 80 is not so high... it is in the upper range of normal for many people.

Hi Lewie,
I'm not certain why you are concerned about you b/p and heart rate? A normal heart rate is 60-100. You are right in the middle. Your b/p is actually good.
Do you exercise? Your b/p is what most healthy people strive for. The normal rate use to be 120/80 ( that is still good) now doctors are shooting for 110/70.

Also, if it was to low for you it would have the opposite effect. It would make you feel sleepy.

How many skipped beats are you experiencing. You said your heart skips a beat.

Hopeful

I don't use the lotion, it made my skin and legs really tight and numb. 80 isn't high but for me is very uncomfortable. its is beating fast but not pumping much blood. Anytime I have any gluten or sugar it goes hay wire as well. I decreased my magnesium to 2 a day and have been keeping more normal.


My resting heart rate is 55 bpm. it has always been really low I was told becuase I am a runner and tall. Anything above 70 bpm and I start getting uncomfortable. My blood pressure also gets low after I eat, 90/54 bpm 50. my regular BP is about 105/65. I am not dizzy at the time but do feel very tired after I eat. Possibly related to my stomach artey issues. My heart skips 1 or 2 beats a day. I get one at 11:00 am sometimes and almost every single day at 4:00 pm. It is so regular I can almost predict it. I start feeling a little different and then 30 seconds later it skips and then I am fine. I saw a cardiologist and he said it was normal, I am anything but normal.

So I slept through the night for 4 nights in a row. DIdn't do anything different other than maybe was more active those days. Last night though was horrible and I woke up at 2:00 but this time very hypoclycemic. My heart was racing and palpatating and I was shaking and sweaty so bad, I nearly wet the bed I was so out of control. It was the first night I have ever had to wake my wife and ask for help. She ran and got me a banana and I felt better in about 20 minutes. I just had my glucose reading done on friday and it was in the normal limits(90). I eat the same dinner everynight, bowl of gltuen free rice cheerios and coconut milk. I am very limited on what I can eat. Might try something with more protein before I go to sleep. I didn't notice it before but this is likely what has been causing me to wake up, it was just more intense last night.

When your blood glucose dips.... you can get very nasty effects during the long night. I get nightmares sometimes.

I use Zone nutritional bars if I can't get back to sleep, at 2am..etc. The non-chocolate ones are best for me. Zone Perfect has a nice balance of protein to carb, so as to keep insulin from spiking. I get mine at Target where they have a big selection of flavors.;) There are slow carb bars at pharmacies now called Glucerna. This releases carbs very slowly and prevents dips during the night. They make liquid versions too.

You might also try Kefir... I find it makes a satisfying snack too.

Thanks- I don't think I can have Zone bars. I can't eat nuts, sugar, gluten or dairy. I eat eggs but today they made my blood sugar worse after. I had to quit kefir this week cause it caused my heart to go into tachycardia and blood pressure to be too low for half a day. Its funny that my nerves have gotten better but my heart palps and tachycardia and stomach continue to get worse and are even more sensitive.

Hi Lewie,
I just posted on a different thread and it made me think of you.

I was saying I'm sleeping so much better now. I found out I was vitamin D deficient. It seems after a few days on vitamin D3 I have been sleeping so much better.

Have you had your vitamin D level checked recently?

Hopeful

I haven't recently had it tested. I have been taking vitamin d supplements though. Thanks for thinking of me. I will have my doctor give it a test next time I go in.