Go to Bed, Already! Part 1 of 3 from Me re: Sleep

Wow, Don! This post you made is wonderful!  Thank you so much.  I am thrilled you've prepared a three part series for this forum. For the average person in the United States who does not have an underlying medical issue which is interfering with sleep, I think this is a GRATE BASE!  I agree with all things you've written as general advise.  (I NEVER agree with anyone 100%, but on this, I do!)

Since you asked, my experience on these points is that in the past when I started going into a phase of adrenal fatigue where you get low energy in the afternoon then a burst at about 10 pm, I found that if I exercised a LOT every day I would be able to sleep.  However, that was contributing unwittingly to the adrenal fatigue! At that time I drank alcohol very infrequently, but now I do notice that my sleep is much better if I have alcohol earlier than later.  I had a wise family member who had a tradition of doing 'happy hour' of snacks and beverages at 4 pm after retirement.  I cannot have caffeine after early afternoon without seeing an effect, although a small piece or two of high quality dark chocolate seems to be fine, maybe because of the other 'happy chemicals' for the brain it has in it.  I have noticed more problem if I don't eat enough that sticks with me/digests slowly in the evening; I believe your brain says 'blood sugar's dropping, WAKE UP!'  

Many of the initial followers/guests of Lumigrate had an interest in fibromyalgia and as such they have insomnia if they've not gotten their fibromyalgia under control. Once I found out about the hormone cascade that is out of whack with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue, I chose to do bio-identical replacement via supplementation at a "physiologic" dosing, not the super-high/anti-aging type, though initially I did have a provider doing it that way.  what makes sense to me is the lower/normal level replacement.  So perhaps if that's not included in one of the other two parts of the series you have written, you can address that here at some point.  I realize you've just worked really hard for years to become a physician's assistant and then you're also working at a specialty area which I think is a really difficult one, so it might take a little researching for you, but I bet it would be applicable in your work, so then that's a help to us AND you!  As you so kindly said, you're looking to learn here at Lumigrate too!   

To give you and others a little perspective: For a new website, the statistics for how people utilize Lumigrate's forums just boggled and stunned Internet experts initially when it was mostly visitors with fibromyalgia.  Now, almost three years on the Internet, it's about half and half 'others' of all kinds.  Which is GRATE! I want to help people learn earlier than later what their symptoms might mean and how to figure out the underlying problem and get back towards wellness and away from illness, if you think of it as a continuum.  

And this piece is included in that: I know tons of people who do NOT have fibromyalgia, or don't know they're having symptoms that could lead to developing a more chronic illness, which this will help. I have a feeling this is going to be a VERY popular topic!  Thank you again for taking the time to be here with us at Lumigrate.  

I chuckled when you said you were up late writing this.  The first all-nighter I "pulled" was in high school. I had a class project report, back in the days of typewriters, and I'd chosen 'Sleep' as the topic of my semester project. No kidding!  And at the age of 16 or 17, I 'got' the irony of that!  It was amusing but I was also so miserable after about 3 am, but I got it done and got a good grade on it.  The only other time I'd had a huge project like that was in 4th grade when I had to do a notebook all year about Colorado.  I remember cramming for that at the end too.

In college I tried staying up all night studying for a final -- this was before I knew I had learning disabilities, a brain injury, etc., and I woke up with the train going by at 7:10 and I had to be in a seat with pencil in hand at 7:30 am!  I made it. I didn't do very well, and soon I took time off from college studies and worked full time.

Over time I learned of my learning disabilities and changed my study habits so when I was in OT school I actually studied the right way, but I also didn't work for the only time in my life (aside a few times when my FM was not controlled and I had overworked and I needed to take time off and get rested and then get a new job and do it all over again.) I fell into a particularly good job for a now-famous research project and the 'boss' was very savvy about stretching a budget and I didn't get any assistance with the assisting of a multi-million dollar project until I was quite going down the tubes of health. I didn't realize that my ability to stay up late and work was indicative of an underlying problem with the hormone system which was going to 'bring me down' eventually.  I really REALLY hope people reading this who haven't crashed and burned heed my warning and learn from my mistakes, which is why I share so much of my story with people.  It's been a long, expensive (in money, relationships, career) road. Make yourself a priority, please.  You're here!  That's good.  As my motto says: "Live and Learn. Learn and live better!"

I didn't sleep well as an infant I was told.  I remember LOTS from my childhood and I'd lie in the lower bunk in early elementary school and watch the second hand go round and round on the clock I'd gotten for Christmas when I went to elementary school and needed to get up and on the bus.  I'd not realized at the time the symptoms of 'adrenal fatigue' and I'd been in the late/afternoon kindergarden because my mother and I were not inclined to get up early. I've learned in early 2011 when I consulted finally with a DDS who specializes in the cranial field and mouth/jaw, that the shape of my palate likely was putting pressure on my pituitary and it was perhaps never able to have a normal experience.  This year I finally started sleeping WELL without sleep medication for the first time in my life! Sleep medication had solved some problems but caused others, and I'm hoping one of your pieces is going to address sleep medications and other strategies people have used. I'd not been a 'take a pill for your problems person' initially; as time went on I became so desperate and my insurance was good and would pay for things with little copay so I went that route.  Again, I got better overall but it's another area I hope people coming to Lumigrate and learning from this might do differently than I. 

I was so tired when I'd wake up as a youngster, my mother would bring me a baby bottle of milk in bed (this was the 60s, no sippy cups that I know of) and I'd get my blood sugar up I suppose, then get up and have breakfast.  One morning she told me I had to get up NOW because the house next door hand burned down and she'd made cookies and coffee to take to the volunteer firefighters.. there was a little boy in the living room; his family had moved in the night before and built a big fire and there was a chimney problem. For MANY years I attributed my insomnia to fear of fire.  I started drinking coffee with cream and sugar when I went to gradeschool. 

I was fearful of burglary too; I remember one HUGE snowstorm I was relieved when I got in bed because I knew no robbers could come that night; I was in late elementary school at that time.  I'd wake up every night my whole childhood about 3 or 4 am and I figured EVERYONE took hours to go to sleep, so I'd wake my poor mother up and tell her I had a stomach ache, which was not true.  But she'd give me pink liquid in the kitchen and I'd figure she'd not go back to sleep before my father got up at 5 to go to work.  She was a "night owl", he an "early bird" so I just figured as I got older than I inherited the best of both worlds!  And as a person going to school full time and working full time in college in my teens and early 20s, I was SO appreciative and did NOT see the giant wall I was about to hit .... drain I was going to go down ....... cliff I was going to fall off of.   

We'd always had to keep the keys in the ignitions of our vehicles out in the middle of nowhere rural Colorado in case, per my father's fears, someone wanted to steal a vehicle, they wouldn't hurt us.  "Slit our throats" were his exact words.  As he got older and a progressive neurologic disease and dementia overtook his cognition, his underlying paranoia 'unmasked'.

Ironically, he wasn't that far off, as one day there was a high speed chase that crashed by his house and the criminals were likely loose looking for another car to steal. He wasn't home at the time but returned home and got around the roadblocks to get to his property and check on all the buildings on his property.  He was quite into his neurologic disease progression at that time.  So then I thought the reasons I wasn't sleeping as a middle aged woman was worrying about my father!  Somewhere in there, the truth lies -- 'worrying' was a lot of my troubles, and not being able to shut of my very active brain.

As a little girl my mother suggested I think of stories in my mind to ease myself to sleep:  I said "I've been doing that for years!"  She would also sneak in teaching me some Christianity, which was against my father's wishes that I be raised without any beliefs so I could decide for myself when I grew up.  Not having a belief in "the Lord" who was going to take my soul if I died, I think that was not the best thing for me to be verbalizing as my last words spoken at bedtime.  But 'spiritual stress' is something I am now VERY appreciative of, and that is a key part of the information at Lumigrate as well.  As is my awareness of 'unit cohesion' between parents, something that is an increasing problem in the US and elsewhere when parents increasingly are not married.   

In my 20s I had an "AHA" about family of origin, codependency, etc. and had, to the best of my abilities, restructured myself. I developed an appreciation for being able to work through issues by learning, thinking, meditating, dreaming, journaling, etc.  I encourage people to do that with Lumigrate, as increasingly people have various levels of insurance and monies available to them for their health care, including behavioral health.  

But what I find interesting is that I had the life stress that 'broke the camel's back' -- it was so difficult and hurtful and was related to my step-daughter, that I put my radar UP and said 'WHY DID THIS HAPPEN?' and within no time in the newspaper was an article about a new author and book/concept about something called 'codependency' that comes from being raised by parents with health issues; alcoholism/drug addiction, chronic pain, other illnesses -- whatever distracts the parents from being attentive to their child.  That's a whole discussion for another place, but finally the stressors in my life .. of body/toxins, mind/psychological and spirit were greater than my body could counteract and I slipped to chronic illness/fatigue.  

I had a VERY bad case of what is now called Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and the blessing in disguise is it made my eye muscles weak and I sought out an expert that found my learning disabilities, which lead to therapies and academic success/graduation in a decade.  It also set me on my butt and scared me to my core and I was motivated to learn and change.  I think that's the most frustrating part of health education for me is that humans typically don't put their radar into 'receive and learn' mode until they're in a bad place; makes prevention difficult. I've had to grow spiritually to incorporate the belief that is simply their higher truth and path and let them experience it, as long as I have done my best to teach and receive as well from them. 

As time went on more was written and known about chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia and related conditions, which I have done my best to learn, and instead of looking at things from the psychologic aspect of why I couldn't sleep, I have physiologic and spiritual mixed in. I hope that Lumigrate communicates each aspect well, and again, Don, this piece is an absolutely wonderful foundation!  

Since I forsee this topic having a lot of interest from new readers to Lumigrate, and you're a new contributor of content, I wanted to weave an overview into my response.  I hope the length has not been a deterrent and as you said, Don, if it proves to usher someone off to sleep, then that's GRATE!

FYI: I'd intended initially to build a website that was only about fibromyalgia and then, to wax a bit spiritual, it became clear to me that Spirit/Truth/God/G-d (as our Yenta at Lumigrate writes it) was making it clear that Lumigrate was to be about integrative/functional medicine and wellness overall and not the narrow focus of fibromyalgia.  "The bus and driver force" is the analogy I use, and my job is to get on the bus, know where to sit, who to talk to, who to ignore, and what stop to get off at! I'm so glad I listened to that message once I finally allowed myself to 'take it in', as we'll be able to help a LOT more people this way! 

You're welcome, Mardy.  I'm glad you share things from your life as it likely is helpful to people reading who have similar health issues, and as a provider it's a good reminder for me of the family aspect of treating a patient.  

I'll address some of the details you've brought up in future posts.  Until then, get some good sleep!  

These are great tips for those of us who are up at night! Or should I say "Grate Tips"? 

I really enjoy learning at Lumigrate and being part of things here, thank you again for including me as a provider in my area of expertise.  I hope other providers are learning from my topics as I am from theirs! Martine 

 Don had forseen his future as a PA a bit differently than what actually entailed, and long story short ... there are no subsequent pieces to look for, but I want to thank him for this topic which has helped a lot of people who have found it related to furthering their education.