Adrenal Stress Syndrome: A Major Cause of Insomnia

Dr. Richard Hagmeyer, NeuroMetabolic Solutions Naperville, IL explains how.

Many people have sleeping problems in our active society. If you are not convinced of this, just pay attention to late night television and count how many commercials are for the latest insomnia medication. Unfortunately these medications do not address the actual dysfunction, the underlying cause. They don’t ask the question WHY?additionally, these medications often carry heavy side effects, and are not tolerated well with most people.

Many times insomnia is directly related to blood sugar imbalances, in particular to adrenal function. The adrenal glands are two small glands located above the kidney, which secrete hormones that help the body stabilize blood sugar.

A common pattern we see clinically with patients that have adrenal hyper-function (overactive) is an inability to fall asleep. With adrenal hypo-function (under-active), the symptom is exactly opposite, they can fall asleep, but not stay asleep. Therefore both hyper and hypo adrenal function can impact insomnia.

With the first pattern, the adrenal hypo-function patient, the body does not have enough cortisol to maintain blood sugar levels throughout the evening fasting period (we all go through a typical 8-10 hour fast when we sleep). As blood sugar levels drop during the night, the body goes into a stress response, and without adequate cortisol to bring blood sugar levels up, the body releases norepinephrine and epinephrine to try to stabilize blood sugar. These are stimulatory hormones that will wake the person up during the night. This is the person who seems to wake up, wide awake, at the same time every night.

The second scenario, the adrenal hyper-function patient, will cause the person to have higher than normal cortisol levels at bed time. This will cause the person to not be able to fall asleep due to the excitatory nature of cortisol on the nervous system.

In either case it is important to look at all the factors that contribute to adrenal dysfunction. A sleeping pill will never fix the problem in this scenario, and this scenario is common. The brain’s ability to regulate the circadian rhythm of cortisol, food sensitivities, lifestyle factors, mental stress, emotional stress, and many other things can contribute to the problem.

There is no one size fits all treatment for this syndrome but we have been very successful helping those with adrenal stress syndrome and insomnia using our Comprehensive, All Natural, Functional Approach, to this modern day plague called adrenal stress syndrome. There is a lot of outdated approaches to treating this syndrome. If the treatment you are considering includes cortisol or DHEA replacement…turn and run.

This is not going to fix the problem. Remember, always ask what is the mechanism? The replacement approach throws that question in the trash, and doesn’t try to restore proper function and feedback loops.

In you suffer with insomnia and would like to see if it is caused from Adrenal Stress Syndrome, call the Naperville Institute For Neuro Metabolic Solutions, at 630.718.0555.

Some simple tests will allow us to determine the source of the problem, and then we can create a custom plan to get you sleeping again.

If you would like to apply to our Neuro Metabolic Solutions Program, then CLICK HERE to learn how you can apply.