Waking every two hours...high or low cortisol?

[soxfan]

So here it goes again...either I can't fall asleep despite taking my sleep meds or I wake every two hours and feel like a zombie the next day. This has been going on for 2 weeks and I am so exhausted I can hardly breath.

Is there any way of knowing if this is a high cortisol or low cortisol problem as I know both can cause issues with sleep. I get into bed exhausted and it feels like my heart is pounding..out of my chest, like adrenaline is flowing widely through my body..then I sweat.

I want to buy seriphos but don't want to take if it's low cortisol. I can't go on much longer like this as I am pretty much unfunctional the next day. I feel like I am in a fog and can't think...help!

 

[Sherpa]

Hey @soxfan .. that really sucks. I have been in similar states and I know that's a special kind of hell. The good news is that lack of sleep is uncomfortable but not usually leathal... and with trial and error you can eventually get out of this state.

It took me several months, maybe a year to normalize my sleep.

Here are two more tips that may help:

1. Waking up in the middle of the night sometimes has to do with imbalanced blood sugar, caused by cortisol dipping too low and adrenaline kicking back in to maintain homeostatis

2. Too much adrenaline sometimes can mean too low levels of thyroid hormone.


For me I associate high-cortisol states with anxiety, adrenaline, being incredibly sensitive to noise and stimuli, sleep onset insomnia.

I associate what I believe to be low cortisol states as having bone-crushing depression, barely any energy at all, terrible inflammation - nearly disabling. I took a saliva cortisol test from ZRT but it didn't help me so much - I think symptoms are a better judge.

I found using Seriphos to be helpful for lowering high cortisol. I took it "as needed." I also liked Theanine Serene with Relora.

 

[soxfan]

Thank you for the input...yes it really is hell feeling like this. I would seriously rather not sleep at all then have this type of disturbed sleep. It makes me feel so much worse. I am hypothyroid but just had all the levels checked and they were in the range.

Just two weeks ago I was sleeping fine...I am not sure why my body goes so out of whack. I actually just ordered seriphos and will give it a try. I read to take in the morning but the doctor said to take an hour before bedtime.

I will eat a small snack before bed and see if that helps. I could try and lay down in the afternoons but the only thing that is gonna help is a good sleep....

 

[Sherpa]

FYI - you can have your thyroid checked and have all levels in range but still benefit greatly from taking thyroid nutrients (selenium, iodine) or glandular (thyrotrophin PMG).

I had a kind of sub-clinical hypothyroidism (T4 to T3 conversion problem) where levels appear fine in blood and on tests but aren't working well inside the cells... but I slept much better when a holistic-minded doctor put me on glandular.

But I worked on normalizing cortisol & supporting adrenals for a long time before dealing with my thyroid.