What works for mid-of-night awakenings?

[Beyond]

Yes the reality its that sometimes sleep studies are not useful... But worth a try. I used to wake up 3-4 times too but now I am back to just two (excluding the final one). It could be sleeping earthed. Yesterday I bought a flower essence product called Sleep from Siddatech, if it work wonders I will tell you guys Me trying flower essences, who would have said. Maybe doing methylation would be better (some people got normal sleep from it) but cannot do that right now.

 

[caledonia]

I'm working on exactly this with my new doctor, and I'll let you know what finally works. I did a sleep study, and I kicked all night...but the sleep doctor just wanted to sell me an apnea machine.

I usually go right back to sleep, but I wake 3-4 times every night. I've just upped my magnesium from 400mg to 800mg, and will try Caledonia's idea of going up to bowel tolerance. caledonia, what's the total amount of sodium, potassium, and magnesium you take daily in the various forms?

Before I started methylation, it was 4 pinches of salt, 1/4 tsp of BioEnergyC (vitamin c with ribose for buffering), and 1 tsp of Vinco's magnesium glycinate powder three times a day. Then the same with salt and vitamin C but increased to 3 tsp of mag glycinate before bedtime. I don't need potassium.

I've done a bit of research recently and found out if you aren't getting enough magnesium, this will cause a need for potassium. So maybe this is why I don't need the potassium like other people.

In terms of actual mg....each pinch of salt is 1/8 tsp, so that's 250mg per pinch. 1/4 tsp of BioEnergyC is about 800 mg vit. C. One tsp of magnesium glycinate is 300mg magnesium.

So for the whole day - 4000mg salt, 3200mg vit. C, and 1800mg magnesium. A lot!

Note - spacing it out throughout the day is important for absorption, plus your body is constantly leaking this out.

I determined these amounts via muscle testing.

 

[Bradford]

WebMD: Side Effects of Magnesium:

Doses less than 350 mg per day are safe for most adults. When taken in very large amounts, magnesium is POSSIBLY UNSAFE. Large doses might cause too much magnesium to build up in the body, causing serious side effects including an irregular heartbeat, low blood pressure, confusion, slowed breathing, coma, and death.

So, if your blood levels are already normal, I don't get how this is safe?

 

[Beyond]

caledonia How do you do muscle testing with these things? I have youtubed it and its not clear. Do you hold the supplement on one hand and try to pull up your other arm?

Also, how much do you take now? Thanks.

 

[CBS64]

1 scoop of Carlson glycine powder, mixed into a little water. It works by lowering core body temp. and helps you go into a deeper state of sleep.

 

[zephyrprime]

Glycine works for most people. However, for people with high glutamate in their brain, glycine will act as a stimulant.

 

[me/cfs 27931]

600 mg of ibuprofen (Advil/Motrin). Eat a light snack first if you get stomach upset.

Benadryl works, but is not worth feeling hung over the next day.

Edit: On a really bad night, I'll take 800mg ibuprofen.

 

[dafais]

After years of middle of the night waking, trying methylation and several other supplements, and ruling out blood sugar and having multiple sleep studies it turned out my issue was high cortisol caused by an upper airway obstruction from a) a tongue tie and b) lower jaw retraction. Every time my airway got obstructed my brain would release a bunch of cortisol waking me up. Since the day after my tongue tie release I've Slept either through the night or fallen asleep relatively quickly after a bathroom break.

*Note: sleep studies don't catch this as it is not an obstruction in the throat.

Sometimes sublingual melatonin works for me, sometimes lots of extra magnesium (800 mg) and usually some reading. If there's something big happening the next day, I take some benzo which always works but is dangerous as gives me rebound insomnia if I take more than rarely.

But how to treat your insomnia depends on what's causing it. Any idea what's causing your insomnia?

Is it high cortisol levels at night? High levels of glutamate, sulfate or ammonia? Blood sugar problems? Sex hormone imbalances? Pain? Food issues such as eating processed food (free glutamates = insomnia) or eating late or too much? Poor sleep hygiene? Sleep apnea?

Each of those would have quite different approaches.