First of all, I am very happy to be here. This is my very first post.
I´ve been reading the Ray Peat Forum for approx. 1 year as a non-member and have learned some RP basics.
However I am struggling with severe insomnia right now (only can fall asleep at 4 or 5 pm and my sleep quality sucks) . Hopefully you wonderful people can help me regaining my sleep. Thank you so much in advance!!!
Here is some data about me and my issues:
- 37 years old, male, Germany
- hypothyroid symptoms, temperatures mostly too low: 36,5/97,7 morning, 36,7/98,06 afternoon (though I sometimes achieve 37/98,6 for 1 or 2 two hours but not that often), evening: 36,5/97,7
- despite of my hypothyroid temperatures I have an up-to-date thyroid panel which suggests that I was somehow hyperthyroid on 4 grains of NDT:
free T3 * 5.96 (range 2.00 - 4.40 pg/ml)
free T4 16,70 (range 9.30 - 17.33pg/ml)
TSH <0.01 (range 0.27 - 4.20) obviously suppressed by the NDT.
Prolactin 8.99 (range 4.04 - 15.20)
Testosterone 5.09 (range 2.18 - 9.06)
Progesterone 0.2 (range < 0.2)
Liver: gamma-GT * 86 (range <60)
GOT (ASAT) 23 (range <50)
GPT (ALAT) 48 (range <50)
I had no sleeping issues for a while on 4 grains of NDT, then Insomnia kicked in. After the thyroid panel I got scared a little bit and dropped the NDT to 2 grains (maybe too quickly but I was scared due to the elevated gamma-GT and I read on the interwebs that too much thyroid supplementation can increase gamma-GT).
Now I am probably 2 weeks on 2 grains NDT and sleep is still crap. I am tired but wired.
I am going to get a new thyroid panel in another 2 weeks.
Until then I am trying to improve the situation with more carbs and protein (I have also read the wonderful "**** Portion Control" by forum user natedawg, especially the chapter about Insomnia) and try to improve liver glycogen during the day and for the night. But until now eating more carbs, protein and good fats (butter) and the obligatory OJ with salt or milk with honey has not helped at all.
Doxylamin Succinat and Diphenhydramin do not work at all. In Germany, I cannot get Cypro without a prescription.
Mirtazapin (I was able to get my hands on one tablet because of my gf) helps well but I am a zombie the next day. Very interestingly, yesterday, Mirtazapin seems to have lowered my cortisol powerfully (have also found forum threads about Mirtazapin and cortisol and temperatures here) so that my thyroid hormones could work better and my temperatures were 37,2/98,96 almost the whole next day, even though I felt like a zombie until late afternoon.
Progesterone cream at night doesn´t work for sleep.
Pregnenolone cream and/or oral at night don´t work for sleep.
Aspirin doesn´t work for sleep.
Methlyene Blue doesn´t work for sleep.
I had a phase where I seemed to have sleep every day with oral hydrogen peroxide ingestion (very much diluted of course), maybe because hp cleared endotoxin? I also have to reapply the daily carrot again to fight endotoxin.
Right now, I do not know what to do. I am not depressed, happy with my job and girlfriend, but I just cannot sleep. :-(
Supplements that I take:
NDT - 2 grains at the moment
Pregnenolone - 50mg in the morning orally plus pregnenolone cream
Tudca - 250 mg in the morning
Silymarin for liver, sometimes NAC for liver
caffeine for liver (2 mugs of coffee, 400mg caffeine pills)
Thiamine HCL
B2
B3
B5
B Complex
Vit D (levels are very good, due to years of supplementation, circa 100ng/dl)
Magnesium Citrate
Vitamin K2 (MK4 and MK7)
Calcium (2grams of Calciumcitrate, also copious amounts of milk and joghurt or kefir)
Vitamin E - 800 iu
Vitamin A - 10.000 iu (I seem to have had success with sleep with high dosages of Retinol, 50.000 (I think, Haidut had a nice thread showing that mega doses lower cortisol strongly and help sleep) but I am afraid of using so much Retinol more often
Vitamin C
I hope my writings make sense and that it was not too confusing/unstructured.
Thank you so much in advance for your help and I am looking forward to lots of wisdom, learning and fruitful interaction in this forum!!!
I´ve been reading the Ray Peat Forum for approx. 1 year as a non-member and have learned some RP basics.
However I am struggling with severe insomnia right now (only can fall asleep at 4 or 5 pm and my sleep quality sucks) . Hopefully you wonderful people can help me regaining my sleep. Thank you so much in advance!!!
Here is some data about me and my issues:
- 37 years old, male, Germany
- hypothyroid symptoms, temperatures mostly too low: 36,5/97,7 morning, 36,7/98,06 afternoon (though I sometimes achieve 37/98,6 for 1 or 2 two hours but not that often), evening: 36,5/97,7
- despite of my hypothyroid temperatures I have an up-to-date thyroid panel which suggests that I was somehow hyperthyroid on 4 grains of NDT:
free T3 * 5.96 (range 2.00 - 4.40 pg/ml)
free T4 16,70 (range 9.30 - 17.33pg/ml)
TSH <0.01 (range 0.27 - 4.20) obviously suppressed by the NDT.
Prolactin 8.99 (range 4.04 - 15.20)
Testosterone 5.09 (range 2.18 - 9.06)
Progesterone 0.2 (range < 0.2)
Liver: gamma-GT * 86 (range <60)
GOT (ASAT) 23 (range <50)
GPT (ALAT) 48 (range <50)
I had no sleeping issues for a while on 4 grains of NDT, then Insomnia kicked in. After the thyroid panel I got scared a little bit and dropped the NDT to 2 grains (maybe too quickly but I was scared due to the elevated gamma-GT and I read on the interwebs that too much thyroid supplementation can increase gamma-GT).
Now I am probably 2 weeks on 2 grains NDT and sleep is still crap. I am tired but wired.
I am going to get a new thyroid panel in another 2 weeks.
Until then I am trying to improve the situation with more carbs and protein (I have also read the wonderful "**** Portion Control" by forum user natedawg, especially the chapter about Insomnia) and try to improve liver glycogen during the day and for the night. But until now eating more carbs, protein and good fats (butter) and the obligatory OJ with salt or milk with honey has not helped at all.
Doxylamin Succinat and Diphenhydramin do not work at all. In Germany, I cannot get Cypro without a prescription.
Mirtazapin (I was able to get my hands on one tablet because of my gf) helps well but I am a zombie the next day. Very interestingly, yesterday, Mirtazapin seems to have lowered my cortisol powerfully (have also found forum threads about Mirtazapin and cortisol and temperatures here) so that my thyroid hormones could work better and my temperatures were 37,2/98,96 almost the whole next day, even though I felt like a zombie until late afternoon.
Progesterone cream at night doesn´t work for sleep.
Pregnenolone cream and/or oral at night don´t work for sleep.
Aspirin doesn´t work for sleep.
Methlyene Blue doesn´t work for sleep.
I had a phase where I seemed to have sleep every day with oral hydrogen peroxide ingestion (very much diluted of course), maybe because hp cleared endotoxin? I also have to reapply the daily carrot again to fight endotoxin.
Right now, I do not know what to do. I am not depressed, happy with my job and girlfriend, but I just cannot sleep. :-(
Supplements that I take:
NDT - 2 grains at the moment
Pregnenolone - 50mg in the morning orally plus pregnenolone cream
Tudca - 250 mg in the morning
Silymarin for liver, sometimes NAC for liver
caffeine for liver (2 mugs of coffee, 400mg caffeine pills)
Thiamine HCL
B2
B3
B5
B Complex
Vit D (levels are very good, due to years of supplementation, circa 100ng/dl)
Magnesium Citrate
Vitamin K2 (MK4 and MK7)
Calcium (2grams of Calciumcitrate, also copious amounts of milk and joghurt or kefir)
Vitamin E - 800 iu
Vitamin A - 10.000 iu (I seem to have had success with sleep with high dosages of Retinol, 50.000 (I think, Haidut had a nice thread showing that mega doses lower cortisol strongly and help sleep) but I am afraid of using so much Retinol more often
Vitamin C
I hope my writings make sense and that it was not too confusing/unstructured.
Thank you so much in advance for your help and I am looking forward to lots of wisdom, learning and fruitful interaction in this forum!!!
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