Cortisol Spike

[thomas_seay]

I seem to get a cortisol spike in the middle of the night which disturbs my sleep.  This reduces my sleep quality and this has been going on a long time.  Anybody got ideas on how to reduce this?

I had a saliva and urine test of my neurotransmitters done a while back.  I took the sample in the night when I woke up (2 AM).  Here are the numbers:


Parameter          Result        Optimal Range       

Cortisol            2.1 ng/ml              < 1.5

Melatonin              44.8 pg/ml              25-60

Epinephrine            9.9 µg/gC                1-3

Norepinephrine        31.7 µg/gC              20-30

Dopamine               111.7µg/gC              80-120

Serotonin                88.6 µg/gC              100-175

PEA Urine                574.0 nmol/gCr         125-300

Histamine                15.8  µg/gC              5-15

[Ultra Magnus]

I seem to get better sleep when I take a spoonful of honey before going to sleep. I have hypothyroidism and I've read that this makes it difficult to store glycogen in the liver. A lack of liver glycogen leads to low blood glucose and cortisol goes up in an attempt to increase blood glucose. So I guess this happens to me at night unless I take some honey, which is supposedly good for increasing liver glycogen (although I still have to take melatonin most nights too!).

[thomas_seay]

Ultra Magnus, what effect does the honey have on you?  Do you notice a marked difference before and after you started using honey?  Mind you, I don't have onset insomnia.  I fall asleep just fine

[Ultra Magnus]

The difference is only at night where I am more relaxed and can fall asleep faster with honey. If I wake up during the night, well grrr, can't get back to sleep! Maybe you run low on liver glycogen further on during sleep hours?

[thomas_seay]

In my case, I don't think the issue is glycogen depletion.  Even if I am eating relatively low-carb now,  this has been a problem even when I was eating high-carb.

[Ultra Magnus]

I eat normal carb myself. My problem gets worse with low carb.

[JeremyG]

I don't know if I have a Cortisol spike or not at night but I do have a hard time staying asleep. I can get sleep easily but I wake really easily throughout the night. It makes me really tired in the morning. I've tried prescription medicines from my doctor and they don't seem to help much. I'll have to try the honey and see if that could help. It doesn't hurt to try.