I usually sleep well although wake up tired..recently I have been woken up at around 1am with a feeling of continous adrenalin coursing through my body. Once this wakes me up I can't fall back to sleep. I only seem to have it once a week but it has been going on for a few months now and something I haven't experienced in the past. It also feels as though my body is internally vibrating and I can actually feel it with my hand mostly on my abdomnal area.
I am having thyroid problems at the moment with a TSH that rises and falls within weeks. Plus I am on a cortef taper but have been on the same dose now for 3 months.
I am sure this has probably been written about but it happened to me last night and I am totally exhausted today..had about 2-3 hours sleep even with lunesta.
Anyone experience this crazy symptom or have any ideas what the cause is..I am seeing my doctor in 2 weeks and will be sure to mention it to him..thanks
Hi, soxfan.
Here's what I suggest is going on:
Normally the period of sleeping is the longest time a person goes without eating during a 24-hour day. This presents a challenge to the pancreas, adrenals and liver to maintain the blood glucose level in the normal range. This is particularly important for the brain, which relies on glucose as its primary fuel.
Normally, when there is no longer carbohydrate being absorbed by the gut into the blood, because it has been a long time since eating, the pancreas secretes glucagon, which causes the liver to break down glycogen, which is stored in the liver, to supply glucose to the blood. This is called glycogenolysis. When this supply runs out, the next resort is to start breaking down protein, primarily from the muscles, to make glucose in the liver. This is called glucogenesis. The cortisol from the adrenals normally rises as necessary to do this. If this occurs, it tends to wake people up early in the morning, because it shuts down melatonin production. In your case, it sounds as though you have the additional problem of low cortisol production, especially as you taper down on the Cortef supplementation. The back-up to cortisol in maintaining the blood sugar level is adrenaline secretion. This is the last resort, and it can cause a panic attack, but it does bring up the glucose level to protect the brain.
In the long run, it is necessary to restore the adrenal (actually the HPA axis) function to correct this problem, which should occur as one result of the methylation treatment.
However, in the meantime, it is sometimes possible to get relief by eating protein before bedtime, as has been suggested. In CFS, this might be the best temporary option, because the Krebs cycle can use amino acids as fuel, so there is less likely to be a weight gain with this option.
Another tactic that has been used is to eat starch at bedtime, as you have been doing with the bread. Some people have used cornstarch. The way this works is that starch is broken down into glucose in the gut, but it takes some time for starch to be completely broken down, because the amylase enzyme that does this can only attack the starch molecule at the end of its chain. So it takes it apart one glucose molecule at a time. The idea here is that the gut can then be supplying glucose to the blood for a longer time during the night. This has been used for children who have diabetes, to hold up their glucose during the night, and it has been helpful in some cases. It might cause weight gain in CFS, though, because the Krebs cycle is partially blocked and is not able to burn glucose as well as normal (because of glutathione depletion in CFS and the resulting rise in oxidizing free radicals, which block the aconitase enzyme). The excess is converted to stored fat.
I hope this is helpful.
Best regards,
Rich