Poor Sleep
A FMS Patient’s Continuing Nightmare
It’s literally horrendous.
You go to bed totally exhausted, but sleep is the last thing you can do.
Sleeping poorly isn’t funny. It isn’t benign. It can and does have a profound effect upon your health and your quality of life.
Sleep - Repairing and Restoring The Body
Sleeping isn’t just closing your eyes and being oblivious until daybreak.
A normal, healthy adult usually needs from 8 – 9 hours of continuous, quality sleep. When sleeping, our bodies work in high gear repairing and restoring almost every organ and cell we have. That’s why when people get the flu or injure themselves, they tend to sleep a lot more. Their bodies simply need the extra time for healing itself.
One Of The Curses Of Fibromyalgia - Insomnia.
With FMS, even though your body is craving rest, the internal chemicals that regulate the sleep cycle go haywire, resulting in a phenomenon called alpha-delta sleep.
Deep (delta wave) sleep is continually interrupted by sudden bursts of alpha waves, which are normal during wakefulness. This delta/alpha wave confusion not only plays havoc with our sleep cycles, but impairs the crucial dream cycle as well.
Without dreaming, it doesn’t matter how much rest we get – you’ll wake up exhausted, slogging through mental cobwebs and debilitating brain fog.
The Serotonin Connection
An insufficiency of serotonin can and does cause insomnia. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter essential for regulating sleep, as well as sexuality, appetite, body temperature and metabolism. Serotonin also plays a crucial role in keeping us mentally healthy – moderating aggression and anger - allowing us to stay in a “good” mood.
Serotonin insufficiency is frequently pushed to justify anti-depressant medications. Also, a lack of serotonin was once one of the favorite theories for migraine headaches (and yet another reason for the practice of mainstream medicine prescribing dangerous anti-depressants and Triptan drugs).
However, those of us better versed in natural healing now base migraine treatment on underlying sex hormone deficiencies (see www.zeromigraines.com).
The BIG Culprit Is… Your Thyroid!
But the main culprit likely causing sleep problems in FMS patients is because of an under functioning thyroid – hypothyroidism, and to a lesser extent, adrenal insufficiency.
One of the hallmarks of hypothyroidism is poor sleep, especially “early morning awakening.” Another one is brain fog. Both are from lack of sufficient thyroid hormone.
What Is The Treatment For FMS Associated Sleep Problems?
- Take 3 mg of melatonin at bedtime. In the USA, you can get it pretty cheap over the counter at practically any drugstore. (In other countries such as Germany, you may need a prescription.)
- Jumpstart your thyroid by taking iodine. Highly recommended is an Iodine/Iodide Combination Supplement like IodinePlus2. You can find this product at: www.1-Thyroid.com.
- Take actual thyroid glandular hormones either in prescription form (Armour Thyroid) or order off the internet as Raw Thyroid. The advantage of Raw Thyroid is that you’re not only getting thyroid hormone but the adrenal hormones as well. Raw thyroid is available at:
http://doctor.rejuvenation-science.com/andrewjones1/
Thyroid Deficiency Self Test Available
For an extensive list of thyroid deficient symptoms and to take a self-test to see how your thyroid stacks up, go to http://www.1-thyroid.com/selftest.htm.
Sleep is Crucially Important!
Sleep isn’t just a luxury, it’s a biological necessity – especially for FMS patients who need all the restorative rest they can get.