Sleep is very important to recovery from burnout but the twist is that
sleeplessness is sometimes one of the signs of adrenal fatigue/burnout. In any case, how
and when you sleep will affect your level of burnout or replenishment.
When to Sleep: For people with adrenal fatigue (and many who have chronic
health problems), it is important to be in bed and asleep before your second
wind hits at about 11:00 PM. Riding your second wind and staying up until 1:00
or 2:00 in the morning will further exhaust your adrenals, even though you may
feel more energetic during that time than you have felt all day. In order to
avoid this pitfall, make sure that you are in bed and on your way to sleep
before 10:30 PM, so that your adrenal glands do not have a chance to kick into
overdrive for that second wind.
Although most people’s schedules do not allow it, it also helps to sleep in
until 8:30 or 9:00 in the morning. There is something magical about the
restorative power of sleep between 7:00-9:00 in the morning for people with
burnout. Even when your night has been restless or your sleep fitful,
catching those couple of hours of sleep between 7:00-9:00 AM can be remarkably
refreshing.
The reason for this is that while you are sleeping during those morning hours
your adrenals have a chance to rest, allowing your cortisol levels to rise.
Normally cortisol levels rise rapidly from 6:00 AM to approximately 8:00 AM, but
quite often in adrenal fatigue these levels do not rise as high and/or drop
faster than normal. Also when your cortisol levels are lower, as in adrenal
fatigue, it takes longer to feel fully awake in the morning. Sleeping in,
therefore, is not only restorative for your adrenals but also helps you feel
much better when you wake up and during the rest of the day.
Some clients have said that they can even get up between 2:00 and 4:00 AM,
do some work, return to bed, and still feel fine during the day as long as they
go back to sleep before 7:00 in the morning and remain asleep until 9:00 AM. We
don't recommend doing this, but it does illustrate the important fact that
when you sleep is significant as well as how long you sleep. Unfortunately
many of us cannot sleep in during the weekdays so if this is the case for you,
sleep in on the weekends if at all possible. It is not self indulgent, it is
essential. Knowing when to sleep can make all the difference to how you feel.
What If I Can’t Sleep?: There can be several reasons for sleeplessness with
burnout. If you are waking between 1:00 and 3:00 AM, your liver may be
lacking the glycogen reserves needed for conversion by the adrenals to keep the
blood glucose levels high enough during the night. Blood sugar is normally low
during the early morning hours but, if you are hypoadrenic, your blood glucose
levels may sometimes fall so low that hypoglycemic (low blood sugar) symptoms
wake you during the night. This is often the case if you have panic or anxiety
attacks, nightmares, or sleep fitfully between 1:00 and 4:00 AM. To help
counteract this have one or two bites of a snack that contains protein,
unrefined carbohydrate, and high quality fat before going to bed, such as half a
slice of whole grain toast with peanut butter or a slice of cheese on a whole
grain cracker.
Both too high and too low nighttime cortisol levels can cause sleep
disturbances To determine if this is a problem for you, simply do a saliva
cortisol test at night and compare your night sample levels with your own
daytime levels and with the test standards for those times. To do the night
test, take a saliva sample at bedtime, another if you wake up during the night
and a third when you wake up in the morning. Write the time each sample was
taken on the vial and in your notebook on a separate sheet of paper.
If cortisol is the culprit, your cortisol levels will be significantly higher
or lower than normal for those times. If your night time cortisol levels are too
low, you may sleep better when you exercise in the evening, before going to bed,
because exercise tends to raise cortisol levels. If your nighttime cortisol
levels are too high, try doing one of the relaxation or meditation exercises to
calm you down before going to bed. The specific yoga posture called the
alternate leg pull can be quite helpful in getting to sleep or returning to
sleep. This is a basic yoga posture that almost any yoga book or video will
describe but an instructor is preferable because there is some subtlety to doing
this posture.
Here is a list of some additional things you can do to improve your sleep.
1) Above all, go to bed before 10:30 PM and stay in bed until 9:00 AM as
often as possible, even if it is just on the weekends. It is amazing how
restorative sleeping until 9:00 AM is for the adrenals.
2) Be sure to get enough physical exercise during the day. Try varying the
kinds of exercise you do, their intensity or when you exercise. Many people have
told me swimming at night helps them sleep.
3) Certain postures in yoga, ta’i chi and qi gong can also be helpful. Check
with a teacher of these disciplines to find out which postures or exercises
would specifically help you.
4) Avoid coffee, caffeine containing beverages (most sodas) and chocolate
because they act as stimulants. These can interrupt sleep patterns and increase
morning lows. Even if they are consumed early in the day. they can disrupt sleep
and make the next morning harder to negotiate.
5) Some people are photosensitive and watching television or looking at a
computer screen keeps their melatonin from rising and inducing sleep. If you are
having difficulty going to sleep and usually are staring at a TV or computer
screen late at night, try having an 8:00 PM limit on these visual stimuli.
6) If your cortisol levels are low late at night, try exercising in the
evening (but not in the hour just before bedtime), as exercise raises cortisol
levels and may afford you a sound night’s sleep.
7) There are particular nutritional supplements that can be beneficial. Often
melatonin (0.3 - 1.3 mg.) taken 30 minutes before bedtime helps establish normal
sleep patterns. Calcium citrate (500 mg.) taken with 50 mg. of
5-hydroxytryptophan (5HTP) at night before retiring is also relaxing and helps
many people sleep through the night. Trace mineral tablets taken at the evening
meal may also help relax the body. Adrenal extracts taken 1/2 hour before
bedtime often help those with burnout fall asleep and remain asleep. If
your burnout is moderate or severe, try this one first.
8) The hypothalamus is very important in regulating sleep. Although
accurately testing hypothalamic function is complicated, a simple test you can
do yourself is to try taking 1-4 tablets of hypothalamus extract and 10-40 mg.
of manganese before bedtime and see if your sleep improves. Sometimes the
hypothalamus tablets need to be combined with the adrenal extracts to normalize
sleep
9) There are also several herbs commonly used to promote better sleep such as
hops (whole plant), catnip (leaves), valerian (root) and licorice (root).
Although not known as a sedative, the herb ashwagandha can help indirectly
through its ability to normalize cortisol and sex hormones, both of which can
produce sleep disturbances.
If none of these help and your life is being deleteriously affected by lack
of or interrupted sleep, check your local area or the website for the location
of the nearest sleep center. Several cities around the country have these
centers that specialize in helping individuals determine the cause of their
sleep disturbances.
These symptoms indicate defective adaptation of your adrenal glands to the
stresses you are experiencing. If you are experiencing more than three of these
symptoms, chances high that you have adrenal fatigue - or burnout. They are
warnings that something needs to change if you want to feel well again.
