Fed up of waking up every night at 3 am

[Marlène]

I've a little supplement for every deficiency and symptom which is about 50 boxes

However I haven't found any remedy to stop waking up every night at 3 am. It must be my adrenals or liver that spike because I wake up to go to the bathroom again and again. Of course I run out of pipi in the end but the urge is always there. And then I'm awake, unable to fall asleep till 6 am, about the time hubby has to wake up. Aaarghh. Then the kids wake up at 7am. Aaaaaarghh again.

So any advice to make my adrenals and bladder fall asleep at night are welcome.

PS: I do take a sleeping pill; it works till 3 am.

 

[vamah]

Don't know if I can help, but I can sympathize, as I have the same issues. I have always been one of those people who has to pee every 15 minutes, so I don't think that's even illness related in my case. I take isocort in the am and PS 100 in the pm, which was recomended to me for adrenal fatigue. The isocort is supposed to raise cortisol in the morning, when you need it and PS 100 lowers it at night to make it easier to sleep. Does it work? Can't really say. I still need to take 2 sleep meds at night. But I think it helps with energy during the day.

 

[Valentijn]

600mg extended release NAC (N-acetylcysteine) works pretty well for me. Though I still wake up to pee, or cough, or if something aches.

 

[A zombie]

it sounds like adrenals to me. YOu need to get a 4 point saliva test done to know if you are high or low (they carry the same symptoms). then you will know how to treat yourself.
It's probably high cortisol doing this (waking you) but you wont know till you test.

 

[caledonia]

This is simple to try and you should know within a few days if it will work - you could be deficient in magnesium (caused by weak adrenals). This will cause your feet to twitch at night, waking you up. You won't realize it's happening, because you're asleep.

I found this out during a sleep study. They diagnosed me with "periodic limb movement disorder".

There is some kind of mechanism during sleep that prevents you from feeling like you have to pee. If you get woken up enough, (like by feet twitching) then you will feel like you have to pee.

So I suggest taking, say, 200-300mg magnesium as a starting dose. Any form is ok, except magnesium oxide, which doesn't absorb well. So mag taurate, citrate, glycinate, etc. If your bowels start getting too loose, you're taking too much and need to cut back a bit.

 

[heapsreal]

Even though most benzos have long half lives they still only seem to keep one sedated for about 4 hrs especially insomniacs with sleep maintenance issues. Adding a longer acting antihistamine can help or half the dose of initial dose of benzo when u wake at 3am. Also could try going to bed a little later which has worked for me on occasions too.

Cheers

 

[maryb]

Marlène
I agree with heapsreal - I use a a/histamines a couple of times a week in addition to 3.75mg of zopiclone, the zop on its own only gives me about 4hrs sleep like you which is not good.
What I find however is that I can only use AH once every say 4nights though, I use 2 different ones at present - benadryl and promethazine(sominex in the uk). it still gives me 5 nights to sort though!!!!
Valerian only gives me a bad head - melatonin does nothing.
you have to find something to add to the sleep meds.

 

[heapsreal]

tizanadine is something i have been using of late when i wake at times like 3am, i think this helps top me up as the other sleep meds are still in my system but not high enough to keep me asleep. Also has a short life so its good for a couple of hours sleep and no hangover. Tizanadine is not a benzo, so i guess im not increase my benzo dose, this isnt something i need to do every night either.

 

[maryb]

heapsreal
I've got .5mg of clonazapam to try, tried .25mg but it didn't touch me. Also tried 5mg of zolpidem last week which just gave me a disturbed nights sleep, so looks like I need more of that to make it work properly.

I started the year wanting to get off the zop but realise I need to get better first........it took a doctor to say to me SLEEP is one of the biggest elements to aid recovery - big wake up call for me, shifted my priorities

Doc also gave me amitryptiline to try, 10mg, but not sure if you can take it on an on off basis? would you know?

 

[Marlène]

Don't know if I can help, but I can sympathize, as I have the same issues. I have always been one of those people who has to pee every 15 minutes, so I don't think that's even illness related in my case. I take isocort in the am and PS 100 in the pm, which was recomended to me for adrenal fatigue. The isocort is supposed to raise cortisol in the morning, when you need it and PS 100 lowers it at night to make it easier to sleep. Does it work? Can't really say. I still need to take 2 sleep meds at night. But I think it helps with energy during the day.

Hi, thanks for the tip. Do you mean phosphatidylserine?

 

[Marlène]

600mg extended release NAC (N-acetylcysteine) works pretty well for me. Though I still wake up to pee, or cough, or if something aches.

hello Valentijn
When do you take NAC? I gave one every morning.

 

[Marlène]

it sounds like adrenals to me. YOu need to get a 4 point saliva test done to know if you are high or low (they carry the same symptoms). then you will know how to treat yourself.
It's probably high cortisol doing this (waking you) but you wont know till you test.

Hello zombie

my saliva tests revealed I was in exhaustion stage 5, so my cortisol was very low in the evening. It does however does not give an indication what happens at 3 am. Any tips?

 

[vamah]

Hi, thanks for the tip. Do you mean phosphatidylserine?

Yes, but I have found that that particular brand works better than others for some reason.

 

[Marlène]

Even though most benzos have long half lives they still only seem to keep one sedated for about 4 hrs especially insomniacs with sleep maintenance issues. Adding a longer acting antihistamine can help or half the dose of initial dose of benzo when u wake at 3am. Also could try going to bed a little later which has worked for me on occasions too.

Cheers

hi heapsreal,

I use 1/2 of zolpidem. A full dose gives me brainfog and more headache the next day. Should I take the antihistamine when I go to sleep or when I wake up?

 

[Marlène]

heapsreal
I've got .5mg of clonazapam to try, tried .25mg but it didn't touch me. Also tried 5mg of zolpidem last week which just gave me a disturbed nights sleep, so looks like I need more of that to make it work properly.

I started the year wanting to get off the zop but realise I need to get better first........it took a doctor to say to me SLEEP is one of the biggest elements to aid recovery - big wake up call for me, shifted my priorities

Doc also gave me amitryptiline to try, 10mg, but not sure if you can take it on an on off basis? would you know?

I have topamax against chronic migraines. There is a major drug interaction between these two so I have to skip this advice this time.

 

[A zombie]

Marlene,
you are dipping low cortisol, so you are using up adrenaline to make cortisol... so it's the adrenaline, most likely waking you. You could take supplements to help raise cortisol (are you low all day?). Also, eating a high protein food before bed can help. I eat and apple and peanut butter before bed most nights.
Drinking sea salt water throughout the day can help adrenals too. NOT refined salt (like morons) but real salt.

 

[Marlène]

Marlene,
you are dipping low cortisol, so you are using up adrenaline to make cortisol... so it's the adrenaline, most likely waking you. You could take supplements to help raise cortisol (are you low all day?). Also, eating a high protein food before bed can help. I eat and apple and peanut butter before bed most nights.
Drinking sea salt water throughout the day can help adrenals too. NOT refined salt (like morons) but real salt.

Excellent, I can relate to that! My mind is full of ideas at night ... typical for adrenal indeed.

 

[Valentijn]

hello Valentijn
When do you take NAC? I gave one every morning.

Whoops, I meant to specify that taking it 30-60 minutes before bed helps a lot. I also take it in the morning and early afternoon, just to keep my brainz from being over-active.

 

[maryb]

I wake up early hrs as well but I have high cortisol on all 4 times of testing???

 

[MeSci]

Marlène
I agree with heapsreal - I use a a/histamines a couple of times a week in addition to 3.75mg of zopiclone, the zop on its own only gives me about 4hrs sleep like you which is not good.
What I find however is that I can only use AH once every say 4nights though, I use 2 different ones at present - benadryl and promethazine(sominex in the uk). it still gives me 5 nights to sort though!!!!

Another brand of promethazine in the UK is Phenergan. I take that every 8 days, and rotate it with other meds on their own or in combination: diphenhydramine, chlorphenamine, paracetamol+codeine (just for the codeine really but the paras will add extra pain relief if one needs it) and melatonin combined with any of the others, except promethazine which is usually enough on its own. I need at least 11 mg prometh, but 25 mg is much too much, and I suspect 20 mg would be too, so I get 25 mg pills and cut them approx in half.

But I still used to get the waking-at-3, then staying awake till about 7 and needing to sleep again then, rubbish until I changed my diet and added certain supplements. I don't know which of these was essential, but the combination reduced my anxiety levels and improved my sleep.