Bad Nights Full Of Adrenaline-Anyone Else?

[Machair]

If I do too much mentally or physically or even just stay upright too long a predictable scenario happens.

Go to bed, stomach churns,muscles twitch, heart races, sometimes sweating and if I manage to drop off through all this I will have horrid adrenaline filled nightmares.

I think it is due to orthostatic intolerance as it happens on those days when my blood pressure has been low and pulse high on standing. I even checked my blood sugars which are consistently normal as I fear going diabetic as I had large babies,( a risk factor).

Does anyone else get these episodes at night and any ideas how to reduce them, as it feels like adrenaline overload to me which I think may be due to the body pumping it out to get the blood round all day when I am upright. I tend to sit up and drink water when it happens and wait for it to get less. Anyone else have this and do you think it is due to POTS?

 

[caledonia]

Possibly adrenal fatigue. In later stages, your cortisol is low in the morning and high at night, opposite of how it should be. You would take Seriphos and other calming agents such as Relora, magnesium, etc. towards bedtime to calm things down. You would also treat the adrenals with adrenal glandulars, Cortef, etc.

You can do a 24 hour saliva test to see what your adrenals are doing over the course of the day, and see if that's your problem.

If you had POTS, you would think that laying down would be helpful, not the opposite.

 

[cfs since 1998]

It is probably excess cortisol like caledonia said. I've used Seriphos and Holy Basil and they both worked identically for me...they definitely help decrease excess cortisol. Holy Basil (aka Tulsi) is a little easier to find and thus a bit cheaper. The only bad thing is they wear off after about 5 hours and I would experience a "rebound effect" where my cortisol would spike up again, and would have to take more. Relora is similar as well.

 

[Carrigon]

I wouldn't say it's due to POTS, but I get it, too. You can reduce the twitching muscles with some magnesium.

I get what I call all nite freakout sessions, where I have panic attacks and can't sleep. I also get where I'm too hyped up to sleep. If I've been under stress, like what my neighbors are putting me through with their noise, by the time they shut it off and sleep, I'm all wired up and can't. I also get the vivid dreams, but not as often as I used to. Nightsweats, definitely and very bad. Rapid or irregular heartbeat, yes. There are nights I can't slow the heart rate down enough to sleep and there are times where I feel it go irregular. All this can be Lyme or just the disease itself.

 

[maryb]

Yes I get this too - my cortisol levels are peaking at 4am but very low in the morning(8am) - just had some results back from endocrinologist so will see how his treatment creams go. A good nights sleep without those crazy feelings would be heaven. The Seriphos sounds a good one to try I would say though.

 

[Machair]

Yes Carrigon I agree with your description of what you call all nite freakout sessions! This is exactly it! Luckily not every night though! What is your view on the adrenals have you had your 24 hour cortisol measured?

 

[Carrigon]

My doc refuses to test me for the adrenals. She is clueless when it comes to most things. She wouldn't even run my thyroid antibody test, even though I have Hashimoto's and would like to know how bad the antibody level is now.

I'm sure adrenals and cortisol do play a huge role. I think we have adrenal fatigue along with all the other stuff and low cortisol.

 

[nanciswell]

Adrenals , and liver and for me alot of food sensitivities. I sleep like a baby now I am on HC cream , have eliminated all foods/ supplements, take things like epsom salts baths , niacinamide, treating bowel flora overgrowth to help my liver detox properly.

I used to be up until late night, now I feel calm and can think of sleep my 9pm.. I feel like a different person as I believe my liver, food sensitivities have been a life long challenge. I just figured I was just a type A person... but some of that has a physcial reason.

My doc recommends sweating to help the liver.. hot baths, infra red saunas { which I have reservations about as have heard some bad things about it.. still researching for myself }

Adrenals .. mine have burnt out as I have been ill for many, many years of reacting to foods... Food sensitivities rev up the adrenals. I would feel up to a normal level of energy , so did not really see the manic side of my symptoms... do an elimination diet is my advice.. I have wasted a heck of alot of time by avoiding it..

 

[FernRhizome]

I have this too and it's the worst! Lying there feeling worse and worse instead of better and better. I've always thought it was because the body has a harder and harder time maintaining blood pressure as one pushes one's abilities and gets more and more tired into the evening. The body realeases extra amounts of hormones epinephrine/norepinephrine (always get confused which it is) to keep the blood flowing and it's like drinking capachino at bedtime! You can get those hormones tested. Until those excess hormones calm down, the body can't relax.....The more I rest during the day, the less bad the nights, the more I try to do during the day, the worse the nights are.

Hot baths and saunas are terrible! And I had a terrible experience with UV lamps. Anything that involves heat is not good, except for a hot water bottle on those twitching muscles! ~Fern

 

[FernRhizome]

oops duplicate for some reason...

 

[Machair]

I agree with FernRhizome-agitated days lead to agitated nights. I think the answer lies in moderating daily activity and taking more rest. I hope so anyway.

I actually found some helpful words on The Hummingbird's Website at http://www.hfme.org/whatmefeelslike.htm. It seems I am not alone with these symptoms as the author of this website also suffers, and feels they are a delayed reaction to orthostatic intolerance.

 

[nanciswell]

Hot baths are fine ,,, once I had gotten off of all the foods/supplements / anything I put in my mouth or on my skin that I am sensitive to.. .. plus boosting my drained adrenals...

If your adrenals are bad hot baths just wipe you out with the added stress..

These reactions are severe.. putting something on my skin will end up affecting my adrenals and liver shortly after.. Small amounts lead to twitiching, shoulder cracking and jumping like out of its socket , severe restlessness, fevers, sweats, fatigue, nausea, unable to move,mania and panic and paranoia.. a you name it I got it.. .. A little poison is still a poison..

 

[Misfit Toy]

If I go out or have fun at night, this is what happens to me. I love music and went to a concert recently. I was up all night. I was up until 5 am. I sometimes wish I could reverse my days into nights. I am more productive at night! THE ADRENALS. Have someone monitor your adrenals. I had a hard time with all of the above things that can help. One of the best things for me is a hot bath and ativan. And, eating protein before bed.

 

[Lotus97]

Is it possible to have low cortisol and high norepinephrine? I assumed my cortisol was high, but I'm not sure now. Phosphatidyl Serine is supposed to be good for lowering cortisol. I'm taking that and Relora, but I'm not sure if it's helping my symptoms. What's helped me the most in the past is getting a lot of sleep (10+ hours/night) and limiting activity and sources of stress during the day. I also have Lyme and mercury toxicity so that's complicating things.

 

[kurt]

I think OI can contribute to this. My sleep improved dramatically when I started taking a rehydrating drink at night. And I take some natural sedating spices as well, particularly cinnamon, which helps sustain the effect of the rehydration and helps compensate for angiotensin system issues (which most CFS patients appear to have).

 

[Shoesies]

I find that adrenaline is an issue for me. Due to extreme childhood trauma with constant reason for flight or fight...I think my system is overloaded. I get that hyper..twitchy, racing heart feeling at night and cannot sleep or if I go to sleep I awaken two hours later and cannot go back down...muscles tense to spasms. Horrible. Same adreniline feeling as childhood but without cause. UGH.

 

[MishMash]

I agree with FernRhizome-agitated days lead to agitated nights. I think the answer lies in moderating daily activity and taking more rest. I hope so anyway.

I actually found some helpful words on The Hummingbird's Website at http://www.hfme.org/whatmefeelslike.htm. It seems I am not alone with these symptoms as the athor of this website also suffers, and feels they are a delayed reaction to orthostatic intolerance.

I've tried many times to maintain "sleep hygiene" meaning I don't take naps during the day, even if I didn't sleep a wink the night before. And I still get the adrenal rush around 11 or 12. Usually my body will surrender two or three hours sleep before dawn. I have noticed mild exercise, or even socializing with friends in a pleasant, friendly atmosphere kind of winds me down..sometimes. Usually I end up taking day time cat naps, which will completely wipe out any chance for sleeping that night.

 

[Lotus97]

I think OI can contribute to this. My sleep improved dramatically when I started taking a rehydrating drink at night. And I take some natural sedating spices as well, particularly cinnamon, which helps sustain the effect of the rehydration and helps compensate for angiotensin system issues (which most CFS patients appear to have).

What kind of drink do you mean? I find myself drinking a lot and urinating a lot (mostly clear urine), but I've been adding salt and potassium to my water so I thought I was covered as far as rehydration.

 

[taniaaust1]

Old post but an interesting question.

If I do too much mentally or physically or even just stay upright too long a predictable scenario happens.

Go to bed, stomach churns,muscles twitch, heart races, sometimes sweating and if I manage to drop off through all this I will have horrid adrenaline filled nightmares.

I think it is due to orthostatic intolerance as it happens on those days when my blood pressure has been low and pulse high on standing. I even checked my blood sugars which are consistently normal as I fear going diabetic as I had large babies,( a risk factor).

Does anyone else get these episodes at night and any ideas how to reduce them, as it feels like adrenaline overload to me which I think may be due to the body pumping it out to get the blood round all day when I am upright. I tend to sit up and drink water when it happens and wait for it to get less. Anyone else have this and do you think it is due to POTS?

I personally think it could be related to having POTS. I myself have hyperadrenalic (as well as having low blood volume) POTS. I find the more I do during the day..the higher my noradrenaline goes (or maybe its adrenaline, my tests have been highly abnormal for it). Then I can have adrenaline rushes at night wake me up which are completely unrelated to what Im dreaming at the time. I think the whole lot can be due to the autonomic dysfunction.

Im now on Clonidine for my adrenaline dysautomina issues and that is helping to stop me having adrenaline rushes during the night. (Adrenaline rushes during the night not only may cause sweating and other symptoms eg insomnia but also I found gave me far more nightmares too).

To the person who asked if it is possible to have both low cortisol and high adrenaline.. the answer to that is Yes!! Ive had both abnormally high adrenaline (so high that labs dismissed 3 of my tests as couldnt possibly be right and put them down to lab errors till I had one come back just out of normal range... high) and out of normal range low cortisol.

 

[soxfan]

I am wondering if there is any way to tell if the adrenaline surges at night...which keep me awake the entire night is actually adrenaline or is too much cortisol.

I don't have this all the time but maybe a few times a month. It of course keeps me awake the entire night with no hope of falling asleep even while taking a higher dose of my sleep meds..0.5 klonopin and 1 kavinace. I can even take an entire 1mg klonopin and sleep is still impossible.

I think? when you have adrenaline surging it means you have very low cortisol and the adrenaline is taking the place of cortisol but I am wondering if you are suppose to have low cortisol at night then why would the adrenaline surging occur. There seems to be no rhyme or reason why I this occurs for me as I don't seem to have done anything different to cause it.
When it happens it is horrible as anyone who experiences this knows....

I just want to mention that I don't have POTS or OI so that wouldn't be a cause for me..