SERIOUS anxiety

Peater

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Every now and then I get major anxiety and night and little sleep. Last night was one of those nights. I think I drifted off around 4am, and up at 6:30. I actually had a really deep sleep for that time, but tried everything I've read about to calm down (Had a bleary eyed search on here)

Things that did nothing:

Kava kava drops (On a normal night these are normally pretty effective!)
California poppy extract (Ditto)
Aspirin (Clutching at straws?)
Bag breathing (I felt different, but did not sleep)
Chamomile and honey tea

The last thing I did, was have 4 teaspoons(!) of brown sugar. I read it on here somewhere and expected it to make me more energetic if nothing else, and as I'd already had honey was not expecting it to do anything.

I don't tolerate dairy that well so no warm milky drinks for me sadly.

Just wondered if anyone knew why sugar seemed to do something (I usually have it in coffee now) and if there is anything else I can try.

By the time it gets to that stage meditation or hypnosis is useless as my body/mind is in full overdrive. :(

Thank you for any ideas
 

Mittir

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Did you mean to say that you felt sleepy after having 4 tsp of brown sugar?
 
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Peater

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Yes I did, sorry for not making it clear I'm still a little spacey :)
 

Mittir

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That is one of the RP recommendation to have some sugar and salty food
before bed for good night sleep. Having sugar with milk or cheese helps to
slow down the absorption of sugar. RP thinks darkness is stressful to our body.
Cortisol goes up in the night, sugar can reduce this. Light also helps to keep
cortisol down before bed. Sucrose and Galactose are very good at refilling
liver glycogen which provides energy through out the night. This keep
stress hormones in check. Gut irritation is also a major cause of sleep problem.
Keeping your intestine clean by eating carrot salad in the afternoon and avoiding
hard to digest food after sunset, help with good sleep.
 
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Peater

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I've been on the carrot salad for a while now and do feel better for it.

I've had plenty of sugar tonight and some buffalo mozzarella which is fairly safe for me to eat.

Will see how things go - thank you
 

Stilgar

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Salt might help. If I have one of those nights I tend to dissolve a big pinch or two of salt on my tongue, and drink some water with it. Have something sugary. The salt is most important for me though for actually inducing sleep.
 
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Peater

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I have been eating more salt for a while now - I was never anti-salt but didn't consciously make an effort to eat more.

I did notice quite a positive difference from increasing intake too.

I slept well last night although I did take a non-herbal Nytol tablet. I'm in the middle of a big job (Which was on my mind that night) and along with running my own company don't have the option of taking it easy the day afterwards.

Luckily I actually felt much, much better at work yesterday than I was expecting, even on 3-4 hours sleep

Thanks again for your replies everyone
 

aquaman

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Mittir said:
That is one of the RP recommendation to have some sugar and salty food
before bed for good night sleep. Having sugar with milk or cheese helps to
slow down the absorption of sugar. RP thinks darkness is stressful to our body.
Cortisol goes up in the night, sugar can reduce this. Light also helps to keep
cortisol down before bed. Sucrose and Galactose are very good at refilling
liver glycogen which provides energy through out the night. This keep
stress hormones in check. Gut irritation is also a major cause of sleep problem.
Keeping your intestine clean by eating carrot salad in the afternoon and avoiding
hard to digest food after sunset, help with good sleep.

I keep salted orange juice or just plain sugar mixed with some salt by my bed - normally helps to knock me back off to sleep if i wake up alert around 2-4am

Are you getting enough light early in the morning? I'd recommend a walk and sitting outside for an hour in the morning, this helps with circadian rhythm and getting "daytime" hormones started early, thus allowing your body to know when to kick in for nighttime.

Plus the usual of avoiding blue light in the evening. Have you tried the uvex orange glasses?
 

aguilaroja

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Mittir said:
That is one of the RP recommendation to have some sugar and salty food
before bed for good night sleep.... RP thinks darkness is stressful to our body.
Cortisol goes up in the night, sugar can reduce this.

There are many agitation reducing, anxiety relieving, sleep supporting, restorative Peat-y measures. There have been many good suggestions already.

If sugar (or salt, or salt and sugar) relieves things marked, high adrenalin is a major suspect. One evening "cocktail" which helps relieves things is a pinch of baking soda in orange juice. The combination of fruit sugar, salt (sodium), and carbon dioxide (bicarbonate) is supportive and adrenaline-lowering.

Another simple measure that is often helpful is sweet gelatin for dinner or an evening snack. The "trick" here, beyond sweetening the gelatin (fruit juice or sugar) is to eat mainly or only gelatin. (My recommendation is gelatin that is cooked and cooled, rather than just dissolved in juice. I know some prefer the collagen hydrolysate.) At these times, eat as much gelatin as you enjoy.

(Even the "dollar store" non-polarized orange sunglasses seem to have a notable effect, though Uvex seems slightly better. Red LED or incandescent light in the evening is another lighting measure)

Most who have suffered through low metabolism know the difficulties of reduced or non-restorative sleep. In humor, we might say, "rest assured".

My experience is: there are different flavors of disturbed sleep, often related to which stress response (adrenaline, serotonin, cortisol, estrogen, histamine) is at the forefront.

The glycine and proline amino acids in the gelatin are soothing. Other foods taken with gelatin often have enough protein to somewhat reduce the soothing effect. Gelatin by itself works better. It seems even better than free form glycine/proline etc. There is a role for other amino acids in for short term relief (for instance taurine/BCAA/theanine), but these are a bit more individual and situational. A few drops Kenogen/Progest-E oil used to the gums/sublingually is sedatingnd anti-stress, but some care is needed in reservation that application depending on age, gender, "estrogenic context" and situation.

For some there is a role for antihistamines (Benadryl, doxylamine, cyproheptadine), which have significant adrenaline lowering effects in addition to other actions. But be cautious that sometimes the "washout" of these is slow and there can be daytime drowsiness.

Keep us informed about responses to different maneuvers. There are still a lot of tools in the kit.
 

aquaman

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Peater - what time do you go to bed? I find if I go beyond 10/10.30pm, then a second wind kicks in (adrenaline) and it means I find it hard to sleep all night

Do you go to sleep and wake up at roughly the same times?
 

mamaherrera

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That is my issue. I get sleepy at 10 or so, but I force myself to stay up to do things and then I dont sleep until 3 am, but sleep until 11 usually. But I want to change this, . . . but when I try to go to bed at 10, I still don't sleep until 3. How do I get this to change???? I get anxious about it and worry about it. When you are sleeping at 10,does that mean that adrenaline doesn't kick in because you are asleep???
 

docall18

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Try some Progesterone cream. Using 10mg/day TD is great for anxiety. It reduces adrenaline and estrogen and increases GABA. Dont use too much as it is potent.

I have tried all those supplements Niacinamide (best), kava, asprin etc etc. Basically if you have any way serious anxiety these will provide only minimal temporary relief.
Bad anxiety is often a major hormonal imbalance that vitamins and supplements wont help.
 

natedawggh

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Peater said:
Every now and then I get major anxiety and night and little sleep. Last night was one of those nights. I think I drifted off around 4am, and up at 6:30. I actually had a really deep sleep for that time, but tried everything I've read about to calm down.

Thank you for any ideas

Specifically what is causing this type of night-time insomnia and anxiety is excessive Histamine. By the time you're at this point the only thing you can do is take an anti-histamine. I have found the best type to be Doxylamine Succinate, a non-habit forming sleep aid.

As for reducing Histamine in the first place, this is very difficult because if it's happening, the body cannot any longer eliminate histamine as well as it's supposed to. Many foods can cause histamine... Certain brands of milk, bad oils, apples, and especially refrigerated chicken (don't know why, but this especially sets off histamine reactions for me!).

A Peat centric diet can reverse this tendency, and maybe you could try some histamine recusing types if probiotics (I don't know which ones are).
 

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