Can You Sleep at Night?

If you just cannot fall asleep, it is likely that your cortisol is too high. Cortisol comes from the adrenal gland when you are over excited. There can be many causes of high cortisol at bedtime, but this treatment is effective in putting you to sleep 99% of the time.

Serine is an amino acid. Serine binds cortisol and makes it ineffective. Serine is given in an absorbable cream form and rubbed on at bedtime (goes right into the bloodstream so you can use less), or given in a higher dose in capsule form (that has to go through the stomach to the liver, so it takes a higher dose to penetrate).

Many people are also low in calcium and magnesium, and high in sodium and potassium. This type of person will need a calcium and magnesium supplement at bedtime. This metabolic type is identified with a simple hair test.

The most common type of sleep problem is the person who falls asleep but wakes up and can’t get back to sleep. This is a blood sugar problem. Nutritional advice and supplementation with the right vitamin or herb is what will most likely solve this one.

The more chronic form of this disorder is when low blood sugar strikes in the middle of the night and you become restless but you are so exhausted you can’t get up. This is when Epinephrine (the stress alarm hormone) is excreted from the adrenal medulla as a last resort. It’s the fight or flight hormone that stimulates your nerves so you can run for your life. This type of person will be able to sleep after the epinephrine episode but will have no appetite for breakfast in the morning and will usually skip the meal. That is the worst thing you can do because it just makes the sugar problem worse and the cycle continues the next day. For this type of person I recommend Tryptophan and B vitamins with 1/4 to 1/2 of a low sugar protein bar before bedtime. Leave the rest of the protein bar on the night stand, and if you wake up just take another bite or two and you’ll fall back asleep. Now your blood sugar ups and downs do not get too far out of kilter.

My best advice is for you to have a consultation, get a blood test, exercise regularly, and let’s get the cause of your malfunction discovered and treated naturally with diet and proper supplementation.

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