Poor sleep from adrenal fatigue

In last week’s article we discussed three nutrients that can help people having difficulty getting to sleep. We learned that L-theanine, magnesium, and skull cap each can be used differently to help you wind down for the night. In this week’s article we will discuss the use of adrenal supportive nutrients for the purpose of getting to sleep.

The ongoing disclaimer in this series of articles on sleep is that treating the causes of poor sleep is always much better than trying to sedate the body and push it towards sleep. The subject of this week’s article can be the cause of some peoples inability to fall asleep. Lets now take a brief look at what the adrenal glands do.

The primary job of the adrenal glands is to produce stress hormones on command when you need them to cope with any type of stressor. This could be emotional stress like in an argument, physical stress like exercise, or physiological stress like getting out of bed and starting your day. The better your ability is to make stress hormones precisely when you need them the more energetic you will feel. For those of us who don’t handle stressors as well as we should there is often a toll taken on the adrenal glands over the course of many years and decades. The toll is that they become less able to produce stress hormones exactly when you need them. This starts to show up as fatigue in various forms. Another sign of adrenal fatigue is difficulty getting to sleep. This is because the adrenal glands have difficulty winding down after being pushed beyond their capacity during the day.

My favourite analogy for the adrenal glands compares a 4 cylinder 30 year old car vs. an 8 cylinder 2 year old truck. If you were to drive both of these vehicles up a steep mountain pass like the Coquihalla you would see several differences. The most obvious difference would be in the 8 cylinder's superior ability to pull the load at high speeds without much of a struggle. However, another difference is what happens to the vehicles when they reach the top of the pass. The 8 cylinder’s temperature will be normal and the 4 cylinder’s will be hot. It will also take a lot longer for the 4 cylinder to cool down.

Ideally, you want your body and adrenal glands to be the 8 cylinder engine in this analogy. Many people who have difficulty getting to sleep do so because in some part their adrenal glands are fatigued to the point of measurable dysfunction. One of the most important treatments I offer to sleep is regenerating the function of the adrenal glands for patients with adrenal fatigue.

In next week’s article, we will look at the signs symptoms of adrenal fatigue and the testing and treatment options.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.