the cause of my 3AM-5AM insomnia

I have this typical insomnia:

1. fall asleep easily
2. wake up at 3AM
3. lie awake for about two hours, being wide awake, very alert

Upon examination there are a few characteristics to consider:

• I wake up sweaty, with a heated body. I can’t go back to sleep unless I cool down. This points towards some sort of stress reaction my body is having, causing me to wake up.
• The mental alertness is ridiculously high. It’s like I have a pinball machine in my head. It’s not anxiety, it’s more a superability and -willingness to solve a problem. This is a dopamine excess.
• The 3AM is not 3AM. The insomnia occurs pretty much precisely 4,5 hours after I fall asleep.

These three things: stress reaction; dopamine excess and 4,5 hours interval have now led me to the cause of my insomnia. It has to do when the internal workings of the machine trigger the neural wiring which reacts violently.

A small intestinal problem triggers my overexitable neurotransmitters.

It takes 4,5 hours for food to traverse the small intestines. It then enters the colon. There, in my case, it remains. It doens’t travel up the ascending colon because it cannot make the curve near the liver (there’s probably an air bubble blocking the way). Food keeps being piled on and the right vertical part of my colon expands, causing stress, waking me up. Since the enzyme that’s supposed to break down stress hormones is broken in me, the MAO A enzyme, my levels of noradrenaline (=norepinephrine) and dopamine are getting very high. Causing me to lie awake for 1,5 to 2 hours, frantically  writing speeches on Important Subjects. During this time my cortisol is depleted and my growth hormone doesn’t get the time of day (I’m robbed of a significant portion of REM sleep). This is a large tax on the body and leaves me with diminished capacity for getting out of bed the following day and healing properties, especially now that I’m over 25 and my endo-glands can no longer make up for such a plundering.

There we have it. A simple blockage leads to a build up in the right colon which makes my body cry out. Triggering the release of too many excitable neurotransmitters.

Again it’s the imbalance between Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) and the Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS), which both have so much to do with the perifere location: the gut.

My balance is skewed in favour of the SNS due to a homozygous mutation of the MAO A  gene and a life time of training to be in Fight or Flight. I can unlearn the latter. I can only influence and work around the former.

Gut motility is mostly governed by PNS. It’s the modus of Rest & Digest in opposition of SNS’s Fight or Flight. Looking at particular neurotransmitters I’ve now learned that as soon as dopamine rises the stomach is reluctant to release its content. This is why a dopamine-antagonist (Domperidone) is prescribed to people with nausea and vomiting (Dutch link). And this is why I have to go lie down about an hour after I have ingested food. The stomach takes 45 minutes to break down the first bites I took and is now ready to release it. I need to make room for PNS to do its thing and the only way I know how to at the moment is to lie down and relax. As soon as I do so my upper GI tract starts gurgling. If I don’t lie down I’ll grow weary and moody as the day progresses and I’ll be devilish in the evening and have hellish insomnia at night.

Motility in the small intestine is dependent upon having enough of the PSN neurotransmitter Acetylcholine and by activating lots of serotonine receptors. Having bad MAO A is a good thing here, serotonine is soaring and there should be one for every receptor. As soon as I lie down at night the small intestine starts happily motoring things along. In 4,5 hours it has emptied all it had into the next portion of the gut via the one way ileocecal valve into the colon. Luckily I have no problems there. For some this valve flutters and lets stuff and bacteria creep back into the small intestine.

We’ve all seen the picture of how the colon lies in the belly:

The colon rises up, all the way to the liver, then bends to the left, traversing in front of the stomach exit to the spleen area. There’s another bend downwards and then it ends in the temporary holding station called Sigmoid Colon.

Which is true for only about 5% of humanity. In most of us the colon is going wherever it wants. Diagonally to the spleen. Bending backwards. Bulging inwards into small intestine territory. So don’t take anything for granted, these idealistic pictures are just theory.
This colon is more likely:
 pic by Glitzy queen00, radiographer in the UK

I don’t know the route my colon lies. I can feel contents at certain places so I have some idea. But I suspect at the Traverse Colon things are iffy. Interfering with the stomach exit and the duodenum, where also the major PNS nerve is located, the Nerves Vagus.

At the right bend, the Hepatic Flexure, its location is probably irritating the liver. I often have a heavy feeling there, bordering on pain. And now I know that something is hindering process in the night. My GP suggested a mechanical issue: an air bubble is trapped in the Hepatic Flexure, preventing passage. He made the analogy with a bottle with air trapped in it: you can’t pour the liquid in a smooth motion.

I can work with mechanical problems. The solution is to lie on the right side. The air travels upwards, into the Traverse Colon. I’m using breathing as a motion device, the expanding and contracting lungs are the main mechanical force on organs, making them move and shift. It’s a natural thing. A good thing.

When I had an echo done of the liver I had to breathe out and hold my breath. The lungs forced the liver to peek out from under the ribcage and the technician could scan it.  It looked so beautiful! Things were moving and fluids were flowing and we saw all kinds of channels. It was such a marvel. Movement through breathing is very good for the internal organs.

After 5 to 20 minutes I turn on my back. I now lift my pelvis to the roof, resting on my feet and shoulderblades. This is a trick I learned when I went in for a pap smear and the cervix was not there. Somehow the uterus had shifted or folded back and hidden the cervix out of sight. I was asked to do these gymnastics so it may shift to another position. Mechanics. Everything shifts in there, nothing’s stationary. Organs are lying next to each other and are all able to shift and move.

There’s an excellent system in pace to allow for these movements. It both secures the internal organs to the scaffolding (the skeleton) and it lubricates the surfaces so there’s no chafing. It’s the Mesentry, a thin layer of epithelial cells surrounding all organ parts, like pieces of clingfoil taped to the back wall at various points:

 pic by blumdesign.com

The architectural structure of the mesentries is amazing, with small gutters transporting the fluid all around. Breathing and moving and muscular movements aid this system. Go check out non-profit educational site The Radiology Assistent for excellent images and explanations of many internal organs and structures.

I’m still on my bed, pelvic to the sky. I’m again using my breath to move things along. When breathing out I can manually manipulate the downwards colon on the left side a bit, trying to help it transport the air bubble to the exit. After just a few minutes I’ll feel the need to pass some gas. It’s only a little bit and I cannot believe that this is actually the bubble that was stuck at the Hepatic Flexure. But I have a result and I’m glad with it.

I now do this in the evening, before I go to bed. And during the day, when I take my hour rest. And at night, should I wake up. My insomnia is less severe because of this, there’s less dopamine produced. I still lie awake but now I’m a docile book, not a screeching video game. I have reduced the stress reaction. But I have not eliminated it yet.

 pic by amazon

I’m looking into a better motility of the colon. It’s not only air in the Hepatic Flexure, I’ve also noticed slow transit in the Traverse Colon. Then there’s considerable build up in the Sigmoid Colon to examine. And there’s a lack of neural signalling that I need to go, either #1 or #2.

Then there’s the food I eat that influences bulk, consistency, roughage and gas production. I already know to stay away from onions, beans and whole grains. Also carbohydrates make for a more severe insomnia, especially potato products. Which lead my GP and me to assume glycemic problems almost 15 years ago when I entertainingly mentioned how a potato dinner would keep me more wide awake at night than other dinners. Having been down the whole blood sugar route I can now say this is not an issue. But experiencing an insuline peak during the day does trigger the SNS for which I pay during the night. So sugar is still bad, but for a different -and far more serious- reason. Insulin is a potent poison, it should be engaged very prudently.

There, I’m done for today. There’s a lot to be sorted. Especially learning how/which neurotransmitters dampen the motility. Looking at you, dopamine. How to enhance the numbers for Acetylcholine? There’s a loop into the Methylation Cycle there that complicates things. There are probiotics that can help with signaling for defeacation. And how I can give PNS more time of day? I’m already grumbling that I have to lie down for an hour trice a day. But I gotta keep that pinball machine chilled if I ever want to sleep through the night and reap the benefits of both cortisol and growth hormone the following day.

A few more things to park here for future pick up:

1. Strengthening the gut muscles is a separate avenue to travel. One that works well for a lot of people, including a lot with Irritable Bowl Syndrome (IBS) (this is a link with the best instructional video for swinging a kettlebell). I’ve started kettlebelling which is a fun thing to do. I keep mine in the kitchen and kettle the bell a few times while I wait for the tea water to boil. Nothing on a schedule, no counting, . Keeping it fun. I already notice that there’s a certain pleasure in keeping your body upright using the core muscles, instead of stacking all your organs on top of each other and leaning on them. Sitting upstraight on a chair, like I was a woman from a 100 years ago, is pleasurable. Standing straight too. I’m stacking vertebrae instead of organs.

2. The stretching in the ascending colon activates trigger points causing sympoms. They are the reflex zones of the colon:

The symptoms that occur at night in my insomniatic period are all noted in the reflex zones of the ascending colon: irritated and stuffed nose; oversensitive sense of hearing (fear triggering); strained eyes; soar throat and tonsils; extra pain in my right shoulder impingement. I have no issues with the other organs noted in this picture, apart from bladder and uterus which are at the sigmoid end.

These symptoms, especially of the allergy kind in tonsils, throat and nose, have thrown me off scent for the longest time. I kept thinking it was dry air or dust mites that kept me awake at night. But it’s the other way around: only if I wake at night dry air and dust mites become a problem. If I sleep through the night they don’t bother me.

3. pH in gastro tract.

4. osteopatic views on movement in and amongst internal structures. Link in Dutch.

5. the various types of motility in the intestines. one link and link to Flash card notes.

6. duodenic colic reflex makes you want to go #2 when the stomach fills up.

7. MAO A influencing when it’s already bust. Progesteron; B2; Ginko Biloba. Progesteron!

and to be perfectly clear: for years I’ve researched all the usual suspects for insomnia. Blood sugar; glycogen; sleep hygiene; circadian rhythm; melatonin; dual sleep; Chinese organ clock; you name it I’ve looked into it. It has done nothing. I could have guessed since I’ve had this sleeping pattern all my life, through every stage of health and constitution.

This now is the first approach that ticks all the boxes, explains everything and gives positive preliminary results when I tweak the dials that are involved.

For other people experiencing this type of insomnia I suggest assuming your body too is experiencing some stress reaction and figuring out what causes yours. I doubt it’s the same colonic issue I have but it might be. Especially if your MAO A gene is faulty you’ll recognize the alertness of your insomnia. This is separate from what causes the stress reaction. But if you are homozygous for MAO A then your dopamine is too high and interfering with stomach emptying and colon motility.

Holle time: the daily checklist

Here’s the checklist I made up. On it all the things I need to do and not forget. I structured it around the resting moments. I can’t believe it took me all day to make this… I’m so fogged!

I want to use this so I don’t have to remember everything. Green is a good colour for it.

On a day that I have no plans this is what I’d do:

About the resting:

• lie down and have something to do. Couch or bed. Lie flat. Wear hat and wristwarmers. Cover with blanket. Earplugs or ear mufflers. Time to go into PNS mode. Use Faraday tent.

About the cortisol:

• hydrocortisone should be taken about every three hours. Doses getting smaller through the day. Make sure you get at least 10 mg on a day that you’re doing nothing.

planning things in advance is crucial:

• lay out new clothes, prepare faradays tent, prepare things to do when lying down: sewing, embroidery, writing on computer (not ideal!), sketching, knitting something difficult, what will I eat when, when will I cook it, when and who will buy it. What’s the address I am going to the next day?

doing things in steps is better albeit a bit messy:

• cooking, cleaning, knitting

FOOD for the next weeks:
on Monday the 16th I’ll prepare a fatty steak (riblap). This will hopefully feed me until Friday.

There are two or three more steaks in the freezer in the city. I’ll cook one on Fri 20 and on Mon 30. I’m running out of dinner on the first weekend of January. Ask Robert to go to the Organic Shop and get me some by then. We won’t be able to visit our regular farmer until Jan 10.

Alternatives for steak are chicken soup from the organic shop, fish from the fish stand, liver wurst, eggs. The butcher in the city (might he have organ meats? They won’t be organic…)

We’ll be needing organic eggs somewhere in the next few weeks, I’ve only got about 36 at the moment (2 for breakfast and some for the cookie dough)

Do we have enough spices, coconut oil, pickles, liverwurst, chocolate, cream and butter? (?, nah, no, no, yes, no and yes)

Bring with me from the cabin to the city:

• red LeCreuset pan, filled with steak and ready to cook the new one in a few days.
• the good cream whippers, both electric and hand operated

there’s still the issue of the laundry…

Today, Monday the 16th, I had an awful day. I feel very weird. Utterly miserable, in my body and in my head. My chemistry is totally messed up. It could be from the four cookies I ate yesterday. Which drives home the point for the coming weeks:

don’t cheat, don’t eat bad things.

pic by Michal Zacharzewski

BAD THING TODAY:
As today was miserable I had to cancel the wool spinning group tomorrow. I’m sad about that. It’s been almost half a year now since I last saw them. Every month I have hopes and this month I was going to go for sure. I’m nearby, I have a car. But alas.

It was also suggested to me that I better postphone the appointment I have in Amsterdam on Thursday.

I’m not ready to that. Although I do recognize the sound sensibility of canceling. It would bring rest. It would mean I get to decorate the tree. Get to prepare for cookies.

But canceling feels, at the moment, as some sort of surrender to the illness. And I’m utterly fed up with it and not prepared to surrender. I’m very angry at being ill at the moment and it’s the reason I’m so attacking this illness from all different angles for the last couple of weeks. It also keeps me very wired and this is counterproductive, I’m well aware. But for now I have no zen. I’ll sleep on it and then I’ll reschedule it to the New Year because I’m such a good girl grrrr

 pic by Iris Scherer

GOOD THING TODAY:
A good thing for today was that I followed up on my good intentions and lay down this morning, one hour after breakfast. Properly down too, all horizontal, tucked in with woolen blankets and the cat. I had remembered to take the bare minimum of supplements including a digestive aid. My belly rewarded me with rumbles and I felt proud and grateful.

So that’s how far I’ve come. A schedule for when I’m not doing anything. I haven’t figured out yet how to juggle the things on the schedule and the things on my calendar.

For one thing: resting after eating will be skipped. This probably means I shouldn’t eat for nutrients on those occasions but for energy. Lightly digestable foods.

I’m glad with the schedule. I think it’s good that I identified a few slots of time where I can just walk around the house and pick up on things that need to be done. Hopefully one of them will be laundry because I’m running a bit low on things to wear.

also by pic by Iris Scherer

Life: drop the ball, keep playing, muster magic.

On Friday I dropped the ball.
I forgot to take my hydrocortisone around 4 o’clock in the afternoon and also any dose after that. This happens. There’s so much I have to keep track of during a day that I just forget. There’s always medicine to take and bodily assessments to make and correct -all day long!-  and I’ve got to plan ahead a lot because things take time to take effect.

As each day is different, both in schedule and in how ill I am, there’s no fixed routine I can keep to. I have to tailor every day. The medicines I take I prefer to take in small doses through the day. Having a sensitive body and sensitive brain chemistry makes that this works better for me. Hydrocortisone and progesterone and magnesium and valerian are best dosed throughout the day instead of one big pill in the morning or at night. It’s a bit more work…

There’s also the added nuisance of remembering it’s time for medicine just when you’re sitting on the couch, deeply engaged in something interesting. While the medicine is in the kitchen.

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll do it in a minute!”

Somehow that minute never comes …

 pic by Odan Jaeger

So no hydrocortisone on Friday afternoon and I didn’t notice. I still had my dinner: fatty chicken soup and fatty chocolate ganache and lots of fatty whipped cream. And then I didn’t lay down after dinner… because we were all bundled up on the couch together, watching videos (dh and me), knitting (me) and snoring (the cats).

By 8 o’clock I grew nauseous. I realized what had happened but as it was a bit too late at night to take cortisol. So I started to sit upright and took npc. Later on I took a bit of diluted vinegar. While standing I remembered my body had been wanting to visit the bathroom for a while now, nr2. So I went to the toilet and had an unpleasant time there. I returned to the couch still nauseous and now topped with a vegetative reaction to the bowel movement. Was it a vaso vegal reaction? It was some kind of primal body reaction anyway: the one where you get either very hot or very cold, with clammy hands, shivering all over and you feel utterly rubbish.

Everybody got kicked off the couch so I could lay down. I took some hydrocortisone which is always nearby (by now it was nearing half past 8 at night, but it was needed).

 pic by Chris van der Berg

I remained on the couch, covered in wool.

I was cold and nauseous and miserable. And grateful to be in a horizontal position. After a while the cortisone was converted to cortisol in my body and I felt its effects. The reaction it provoked? I got extremely sleepy. There’s something to think about. Usually cortisol is an activating hormone. Unless it soothes the immune system.

I dragged myself upstairs and fell asleep. It was half past nine.

A small crisis, all because I forgot my dose.

 pic by Sebnem Imece

“Hmpf!”

Of course it wasn’t over with one night’s sleep.

First of all, it wasn’t a night’s sleep. I slept from 21.30 until 2.30 hour. I woke up refreshed, in fact I was sure it was 6 o’clock in the morning or something because I felt so good and that’s why I didn’t resist waking up all the way. I wasn’t warm or cold either, just toasty. When I figured out what time it actually was I just laid there, waiting out the peak of excited neurotransmitters. I still felt a bit nauseous now and then. Could taste the ganache. Vowed to never eat again. Took some npc.

 pic by Esther Groen

My second sleep was from 5 till 8.30. From which I awoke very tired and groggy. It took a long, long time to arrive back into the world of the living. And lots of cortisol.

All of Saturday I had to carefully walk the fine line between too much and not enough. Take rest, take medicines, pace myself, have a bit of food, leave half of it, start a project, stall it, take supplements, take rest.

I felt utterly dumb for forgetting the afternoon doses the day before and bringing such a wreck upon myself. Now I was paying for it. I had to be really careful the whole day and the illustrating I was looking so much forward too suffered from it and was hard to do.

I felt dumb.

 pic by Judy Roberson

I felt so very dumb.

But later, that evening, I started to feel proud instead.

 pic by Sias van Schalkwyk

Yes, proud.

Because each and every day I do all the things mostly right. I eat the right foods, I make sure I have the right foods prepared, I plan things, I have clothes to wear, wear said clothes, brush teeth, take my medicines, keep my body warm, have an interest in friends, think onteresting things. When I was very ill I messed up on various of these elements, causing bodily or mental panics.

Nowadays there’s seldom a time anymore when there’s a panic.

There used to be panics because suddenly there was no food in the fridge or no supplements or I’d run out of important medicines or left them in the city or had no clean clothes or forgot to turn on the central heating or I didn’t shield myself from a glucose or salt deficiency. Those were daily battles. Nowadays they hardly ever occur and when they do they’re usually a buikd up of three things that go wrong.

Last time I messed up was around Sept.14th, when I ate too much weird cheese and bread and busted my kidneys while my adrenals were already out of commission which I hadn’t noticed and entertained too much visitors without taking the proper rests.

All other days I’m doing things right.

All day. Every day.

I can be proud. I am proud. I am doing this thing!

Every day, I am doing this thing well!

 pic by Andreas Krappweis

Prrrrrrrrrrroud!

Of course it’s a shame I dropped the ball on Friday though. It’ll have repercussions for the whole of next week and the Christmas week after that and the week beyond. Which is a shame because I have things planned. Fun things.

I may have to reconsider my plans… Here’s how my calendar looks:

MY CALENDAR FOR THE NEXT FEW WEEKS:

Today Dec 15
Today, Sunday, I already pushed the envelope and drove an hour to a wool party (where I presented the illustrated notebooks and got praise!). And back. I was delighted to see my friends again!

Tomorrow, I’m resting. And preparing dinner for the rest of the week.

Tuesday morning is spinning group. That’s half an hour’s drive. And back.

Wednesday I’m driving myself and the cat to Den Bosch. Somehow a x-mas tree has to appear magically in the house that day too.

Thursday I’m traveling to Amsterdam for a mumbo jumbo medical procedure I have calculated expectations of (tell you more about it when I know results). One hour travel to. And fro.

Friday I’m resting. And baking cookies. Probably should take a showe. And figure out new clothes to wear.

pic by Michael Faes

Saturday my friend Pippi comes for a visit. She likes cookies. And x-mas tree. (which better be magically decorated by then too)

Sunday I’m resting. And baking cookies. What am I eating for dinner these days?

pic by Michael Faes

Monday my friend Tinkerbell comes for a visit! She likes cats. My cookies are shaped like cats, it’ll be great. (I’d love to illustrate a notebook with a cat for her as a present, we always exchange presents. When will I have time?)

Tuesday I’m resting. And baking cookies. Also x-mas roast dinner will happen that day, magically I presume.

 pic by Michael Faes

Wednesday we’ll travel to Utrecht to spend x-mas with my family. I promised cookies. (one hour travel… and also back)

Thursday we’ll travel to the south to spend time with other family. There should be cookies. And ganache these should be prepared on a previous day. The travel will be 35 minutes one way by car, fairly stress free for me.

Friday and Saturday I’ll be resting. What’s for dinner the coming week?

Sunday I’ll get my period.

Monday we’ll travel to the cabin to spare the cats New Year’s Eve fireworks. And ourselves too. We’ll have to visit the baker in town to get ‘oliebollen’.

 oliebollen, by BarisArt

Tuesday I’m resting. In bed by nine.

Wednesday it’s a new year! We’ll be traveling back to the city.

 pic by Adyna

Thursday my friend M. will visit. I imagine she loves cat cookies!

Friday I’m resting.

Saturday I’m visiting a friend for her birthday. (gotta organize a present)

Sunday the 5th of January…. I’ll be resting. And probably clearing the rest of January’s calendar.

hmmmmmm. This is not a very smart calendar. It looked good last week, when I was up and running (on lovely cortisol and estrogens). But now that I’ve dropped the ball and need to recuperate AND visited the knitters party today I know I’m in for trouble.

 pic by Mike Wilkinson

If I could just switch faster between ACTION! and RRrrrrrressssst.

The getting-into-action-bit I’ve got covered. It’s my natural inclination. But the getting-into-rest-bit….not so much.

I wonder….. could I do a bit of an experiment the next couple of weeks? Up the rest-bit? Actively pursue it?

Usually when I come back from some activity, such as a visit or the spinning group, I relax like most people do: surf the computer, watch some tv, have a drink (herbal tea), pet the cat, read amusing newspaper (DailyMail.co.uk). Some low cerebral activity. Just marinate in life, so to say.

It’s fine. It’s relaxing. But it doesn’t get my body into that parasympathetic state of Resting and Digesting. (And healing)

What if I pursue this state actively? What if I see “relaxing” as:

• actual lying down (a.k.a. move butt and stuff to couch or bed)
• do something non taxing to the mind (a.k.a. no envigorating movies, news or surfing. Stick to knitting -chose pattern you have to watch your hands with and wear your reading glasses- or illustrating (yay!) or writing or reading (health research or a novel) or sewing or bend those pins you’ve been meaning to do for a year now for those two dear women
• ease up on the body (a.k.a. preserve digestion energy by eating small portions of good food (a.k.a. stocks, no more sjoko-kerstmannen) and lie down after one hour (my body needs it! do it!)
• spend time in Faraday tent (you lazy bastard, you get distracted by the higher energy you have in the city and think you don’t need to but you do. Get your butt in that tent!)
• Use progesterone liberaly. Already symptoms are showing of shortage and you need more now that adrenals are down.

hmm.

This requires quite a strict regimen for the next couple of weeks.

And some preparations (have materials and designs for leisure projects prepared; locate the clocks in the house and learn to glance upon them and noting at what time from now it’s time to lay down; make sure the right foods are in the house or know where to get them.)

But I think it’s the only way I am going to pull of the scheme I’ve planned and enjoy it too. There’s nothing on my calendar I’m prepared to cancel. Luckily I know that all visitors to my house don’t batt an eye when I flop down on the couch or when my eyes glaze over. I do hate when it happens though, it robs me of fully enjoying the moment. But half a moment is still better than no moment.

So there it is. A plan and intentions. And I know where my weaknesses lie. I know I’ll get buzzing when I get to the city. No way am I letting that get in the way of taking the necessary rests. Especially when I don’t feel tired, I need to keep the scheduled rests. Twice a day I need to see the couch up close.  It’s a lie, the wiredness!

PS. don’t tell the funny birds that I just blew my planned bedtime writing this post. Good intentions always start best tomorrow.

 pic by Susan Fernbach

Sleep: more questions

My sleep research prompts more questions:

– might it not be a cortisol peak but actually slowed down adrenaline clearance?
– I found a handfull of other people with this sleep pattern (sleep for fourandahalf to five hours then lie wide awake for two). We all share the MAO A mutation that hinders adrenaline clearance.
– all medicine I take that help me somewhat to sleep through the night are things that calm down the nervous system (ns) and give the parasympathetic nervous system (psns) a chance to dominate. The medicines I refer to are Valerian, natural progesteron cream (npc), polynosan, ketogenic diet and a low stress life. Does my sleep all come down to psns not getting the time of day?
– I routinely run checks through the day and find my body in a state of alertness. A dominant sympathetic nervous system (sns) certainly is my problem. Has been so all my life. Are there more things to do to combat this state of Fight or Flight? All I employ now are: npc, deep breathing, mental hygiene, relaxation, no sugar or insuline spikes. I have not found other remedies on the internet yet.
– not getting a full nights sleep certainly robs me of the customary growth hormone surge during REM stage. Ofcourse you get a fatgued body from that.
– has mainting body temperature got somethingto do with it? I had an unusual long first stint last night, 5,5 hours, and I brought a steaming hot water bottle with me. It’s still warm when I wake. Usually it’s luke cold by then. I do have temperature problems, waking up in a sweat and not being able to fall asleep for the second stint untill I cool down.

I write this from my bed, on my iPad, hoping to get my second portion of sleep soon.
But first I need to shake some annoyances I have. I keep grumbling over some remarks someone made. I think they are stupid, those remarks. Too general, too much wanting the world to be an easy place. These persons just blurt out their wisdom without aknowledging that I am dealing with a problem less than 7 percent of insomiacs have. They do not aknowledge me. But instead of dismissing the remarks I keep rehashing them.

Rehashing is very classical insomnia behaviour. Guess I should be grateful I join the 93%!
It’s so unproductive. One shouldn’t rehash at all at night.
I better direct my thoughts towards an interesting design problem. Or go on a meditative journey.

But just for the record of grumblings, that beautiful book full of dog ears and spit stains: another person came by pointing me to segmented sleep and how that used to be natural to man. Without conversation, they just dumped the link in my lap. Making me spend time looking it up and reading it. Time and energy I don’t have! Because contrary to any sleep pattern that might be natural to man I have a sleep pattern that prevents my body from healing, as illustrated by my eroding health.
You insensitive twat.
Then I got free advice on sleep hygiene (have a dark room, no tv, no coffee etc.)
Yes.
Thank you.
Spitspitgrumble