Sleep problems? High cortisol to blame?

Around 3 or 4am is when adrenaline peaks typically, so if your stress hormone baseline is high, that surge can wake you up. Matt sees that a lot. From 12 Paleo Myths, in the list of common paleo fail symptoms:

“Waking at 4am
Our natural rhythms seem to set 4am as the time to awaken with a surge of adrenaline when things start to become ?off. I do believe that this can have something to do with running out of sugar and salt at the cellular level ? once again relating to overall metabolism.
Usually there is a strong urge to urinate and feelings of extreme hunger or thirst, rapid pulse, and anxiety. Putting sugar and salt under the tongue at this time is very helpful for taming this adrenaline surge. This is another thing to watch out for and take action to correct.”

You can also try a salty carby snack, like two or three crackers or pretzels, to help deal with that, and get you back to a less stress-hormone dominant state, and more quickly back to sleep.

Feeling hot, possibly with a racing heart is consistent with that adrenaline surge pattern, and then once that calms a bit, feeling cold and with low BP makes sense. Some people in a low metabolic state have a similar reaction to eating; when you eat, you quell that stress response, and if that was the only thing keeping you warm and alert, then you’ll feel comparatively cold after.

In general- working on metabolic health is a good idea. The more time you spend in a less stress-hormone dominant state during the day, the more your body can restore and repair, and the less likely it is that the normal hormonal peak at that time will be strong strong enough to wake you.

It’s not fun, and no one wants to experience this, but it’s often an easy fix. Try the salt and sugar under the tongue during acute bouts of it, and see what happens. And in general, I would follow the guidelines of Eat for Heat, paying attention to signs of stress hormone events, and keeping them at bay by consuming appropriate amounts of fluids, and making sure to get plenty of food, especially carbs and sleep. Good luck.

It’s up to you to figure out how much- there’s no set amount really. Maybe a teaspoon or two of each and see how that goes for you.

The idea is to let it dissolve under the tongue so it’s absorbed faster and is more immediately available, rather than going through your GI tract. Obviously if you’re chewing, it happens too, versus just swallowing like pill. But sublingual absorption seems to be most effective.

Thanks, I will give that a try and hope I have some success.

@Linda: I’m almost exactly the same. Waking up every few hours, suddenly wired the second I switch off the light, and the fat… ah, the fat. Le sigh.

@Linda, yeah, the lack of consistent sleep does tend to cause more stress… and less sleep. Perfect : / I’ve found yoga and meditation help sometimes, but my practice of preference is Bikram, which requires a good 2-3 litres of water ingested throughout the day. Haven’t figured out how I’m going to work through that, or whether to transition into a less fluid-intensive style.

Oddly enough, when I did Whole30 about 18 months ago, I found I slept really well, too. Sugar seemed to be the lowest common denominator at the time. There’s no way in hell I want to go paleo again; it drove me absolutely mental with all the restrictions (and I’m not a fan of red meat or eggs). What’s a girl to do?

I’m just jumping into the sleepless group, problems staying asleep earlier in the evening, and waking way too early. I Think Matt recommended 4 parts sugar and 1 part salt.