No sleep problem

[trevorbayliss]

Can anyone help me with a friend who cannot sleep at all. This week she has slept 1 1/2h hours. Her whole body is a hormone wreck and she has ME i think. There is very little the doctors can seem to help her with.

She is taking thyroid medication (quite a low dose) and this does very little for her. She has tried dhea and this does little. Her cortisol blood test in the morning (by blood) is low but still ok from the GP's point of view. She has been told hydrocortisone may help her, but she is not sure whether to take it. She also takes nutri adrenal tablets.

I am going to do some digging for her to try and point her on some better pathways. Hence i thought i may post here.

If someone cannot sleep is this an adrenaline problem ?

Any ideas where she needs to start looking to repair herself ?

 

[Blossom]

It couldn't hurt to start with some salt and sugar. ME is known as CFS in the U.S. so you could search the forum and get ideas for things that have helped with chronic fatigue syndrome. I personally think it won't be one specific thing but a combination of the protective substances that Peat writes about. A diet in line with the proper sugar, protein and fats with hormonal optimization is most likely what will help. Her mitochondria are not respiring properly so it will take a holistic approach to repair that as with every other ailment. Red light and CO2 of course would be beneficial. I had that diagnosis for over a decade and medicine could never help me but implementing Peat's work has. Best of luck to your friend.

 

[mas]

I was diagnosed with ME/CFS/FM 9 years ago and now I am slowly improving. I found RP not long ago. I have been on many meds - Neurontin, beta blockers, several pain meds, and sleeping pills because when I got sick I had raging insomnia (its hell not to sleep), but I eventually went off all the pills. My sleep now is good, but I am still trying to balance a very broken metabolism.

Does your friend have any other symptoms other than the insomnia?

I had major hyper adrenaline symptoms of POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia- heartbeat going up 30 beats per minute and/or a heartbeat over 120 per minute after approximately 10 minutes of standing ) and many people with ME/CFS when tested for adrenaline are enormously high (however most doctors will NOT test for adrenaline levels .

Does your friend complain of heart fluttering, palpitations, strange beats and heart arrhythmia? Any sweating, trembling, shakiness, faintness,near passing out? It is adrenaline compensating for the lack of celllular energy.

From my own experience as a guide, I would say start off slowly and take a look at your diet. Because you are on this forum, I am sure you are aware of RP and I have found his articles and KMUD talks enormously helpful.I agree with Blossom regarding stating with the basics -

salt and sugar. OJ and milk, cheese-(milk and sugar( hot chocolate at bed time)
red light (get at hardware store 250 w 130 v clear heat lamps
Pregnenolone (I have been on approx. 30 mg daily going on 5 months it has helped me)
Progesterone- I am just starting and have no opinion yet
Electrical alarm clocks and any other electrical devices near your bed (MOVE at least 10 or more feet away)

Many people here have different experiences with thyroid and it seems to be a complicated and tricky issue trying to find the right dosages, but peoples experiences here are valuable to read because you may find an insight that could be helpful.

 

[Blossom]

Can anyone help me with a friend who cannot sleep at all. This week she has slept 1 1/2h hours. Her whole body is a hormone wreck and she has ME i think. There is very little the doctors can seem to help her with.

She is taking thyroid medication (quite a low dose) and this does very little for her. She has tried dhea and this does little. Her cortisol blood test in the morning (by blood) is low but still ok from the GP's point of view. She has been told hydrocortisone may help her, but she is not sure whether to take it. She also takes nutri adrenal tablets.

I am going to do some digging for her to try and point her on some better pathways. Hence i thought i may post here.

If someone cannot sleep is this an adrenaline problem ?

Any ideas where she needs to start looking to repair herself ?

When I replied earlier I had this in mind and just found it and thought I would pass it along. This is from Ray Peat's newsletter entitled Edema,Estrogen and Aging page 4
"Since I had become a sound sleeper as soon as I began taking thyroid,and had seen that thyroid alone could cure most people's insomnia(sometimes as one doctor desribed "better than morphine") I began to understand that the adrenaline which disturbed sleep was an indicator of defective energy production and that the things which restored sleep- thyroid, salt, sugar, protein and progesterone, for example were acting directly on the cells energy production."
I will go over the tutorial on how to post a Ray Peat quote this weekend and do it as instructed for future Ray Peat quotes. Hope that helps you help your friend.

 

[trevorbayliss]

Ok thanks for the replies. Very interesting. I am very well myself having been a thyroid patient untreated for 16 years, but am now fighting fit. I have only just come across this forum and RP's site and have found it very interesting and useful. Wish i had found it yrs ago.

I will try and direct the lady to the site herself so she can ask her own questions.

 

[frannybananny]

When I replied earlier I had this in mind and just found it and thought I would pass it along. This is from Ray Peat's newsletter entitled Edema,Estrogen and Aging page 4
"Since I had become a sound sleeper as soon as I began taking thyroid,and had seen that thyroid alone could cure most people's insomnia(sometimes as one doctor desribed "better than morphine") I began to understand that the adrenaline which disturbed sleep was an indicator of defective energy production and that the things which restored sleep- thyroid, salt, sugar, protein and progesterone, for example were acting directly on the cells energy production."
I will go over the tutorial on how to post a Ray Peat quote this weekend and do it as instructed for future Ray Peat quotes. Hope that helps you help your friend.

Do you take the thyroid in the morning? It makes me very hyper, sometimes to the point of shaking and panic attacks.

 

[Blossom]

Do you take the thyroid in the morning? It makes me very hyper, sometimes to the point of shaking and panic attacks.

Yes, usually only in the morning. I have taken it occasionally when I wake up in the middle of the night and found it helpful to get back to sleep.