grapes
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About two years ago, I have been waking up a few times during the night, and trouble falling back asleep.. Looking back, my sleep issues started after I had gone through two years of heavy metal detoxing here or there to get high levels down, plus treating SIBO and enduring the miserable die off of killing high candida...plus the beginning of PEM.
Lately, my waking up has been particularly bad and seems connected to being under a lot of stress right now with caring for a very sick family member who's also not pleasant to be around. And when I wake up in the night, I can tell I have bodily inflammation and I don't feel well. It all goes away once I fully wake up and all day.
And I discovered a journal article titled Current Directions in Stress and Human Immune Function which seems to strongly describes what I'm going through during the night. They term it immune dysregulation, and it shows a connection to stress, whether psychological (in my case, being uncomfortable with this family member's personality) or physical (a few years of detoxing and dieoffs, then helping her with the house, and experiencing PEM occasionally). Here are few important points:
Lately, my waking up has been particularly bad and seems connected to being under a lot of stress right now with caring for a very sick family member who's also not pleasant to be around. And when I wake up in the night, I can tell I have bodily inflammation and I don't feel well. It all goes away once I fully wake up and all day.
And I discovered a journal article titled Current Directions in Stress and Human Immune Function which seems to strongly describes what I'm going through during the night. They term it immune dysregulation, and it shows a connection to stress, whether psychological (in my case, being uncomfortable with this family member's personality) or physical (a few years of detoxing and dieoffs, then helping her with the house, and experiencing PEM occasionally). Here are few important points:
- In humans, among other species, one of the systems that responds to challenging circumstances is the immune system.
- Acute stress also increases blood levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines [2]. Chronic stress lasting from days to years, like acute stress, is associated with higher levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines, but with potentially different health consequences [3].
- Those who have experienced early adversity, for example, may be more likely to exhibit exaggerated immune reactions to stress [6, 7]. (More about this under the heading Early life stress)
- As people age, they are less able to mount appropriate immune responses to stressors.....In addition, psychological stress affects organisms in a manner similar to the effects of chronological age, and chronological aging coupled with chronic stress accelerates immunological aging [18].
- Research has suggested that older adults are unable to terminate cortisol production in response to stress. Cortisol is ordinarily anti-inflammatory and contains the immune response, but chronic elevations can lead to the immune system becoming “resistant,” an accumulation of stress hormones, and increased production of inflammatory cytokines that further compromise the immune response [18]. (More under the heading Stress, immunity, and aging)
- How does stress get “under the skin” to influence immunity? Immune cells have receptors for neurotransmitters and hormones such as norepinephrine, epinephrine, and cortisol, which mobilize and traffic immune cells, ideally preparing the body to mount an immune response if needed [25]. Recent evidence shows that immunological cells (e.g., lymphocytes) change their responsiveness to signaling from these neurotransmitters and hormones during stress [26].
- However, immunological responses are biologically and energetically costly, and over time, chronic stress produces negative systemic changes both in immune trafficking and in target tissues [6].
- ...stress has been linked to being in troubled relationships, having negative or competitive social interactions, and feeling lonely, which have each in turn been linked to increases in pro-inflammatory responses to stress [27-29].
- Stress induces chronic immune activation and altered health outcomes that resemble those seen in chronic inflammatory diseases such as RA [39, 40].
- Research on stressors occurring early (i.e., childhood and adolescence) and late (i.e., aging) in the lifespan have suggested that individuals exposed to chronic stressors (e.g., abuse, caregiving) can exhibit immune dysregulation that may be persistent and severe.
Now luckily for me, I stop caring for this family member in 1 1/2 weeks. So I'm going to be very curious if this intensity at night (high cortisol causing wakeups, feeling the inflammation, etc.) will be relieved.
BUT I still face the fact that I've been waking up at night for two years now after a few years of biological stress. Just not as BAD as it's been going on lately with helping her. So I have to figure out how to calm my body/immune system down!!
By the way, I am taking lots of calming herbs at bedtime, plus magnesium and lately trying a short run with Benadryl. I have been on cannabis oil which helps me fall asleep faster than Benadryl. Maybe Benadryl doesn't kick in quick enough. Yes, I know I don't want to use Benadryl for long. I'm also needing a bit of cortisol during the day to counter the low cortisol.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4465119/
I also have a workbook to control anxiety.