10 Steps to Recovering Insomnia

Sleep is one of the cornerstones to good health and emotional wellness.  Waking frequently in the middle of the night is almost always caused by high cortisol output from the adrenal glands as a reaction to low blood sugar.  The easiest way to deal with this situation are the following steps:

• Minimize the physical and emotional stressors on your system.  This allows your adrenals to recover their reserves more easily and quickly.
• Avoid all simple carbohydrates, juices/sodas (diet or regular), and caffeine.  A simple carbohydrate is white bread, white pasta, candy, chocolate, fruit juices, sodas, pastries and desserts.  Caffeine will affect your blood sugar levels as do drinking liquids that have high sugar content.
• Eat frequently (usually every 2 hours) prior to getting hungry with a high protein snack or meal.  This usually includes animal protein, cheese, strained yogurt, eggs, nuts and the like.  This step will help to maintain your blood sugar as your adrenals work on recovering.
• Take in a bit more salt into your diet during this time.  Make sure you check with your doctor about this if you are also dealing with sodium sensitive hypertention but for most people with adrenal fatigue blood pressure is not usually the problem for you.

• Eat a high protein snack before 1/2 hour before bed.  This is usually small like a half cup of yogurt or a handful of nuts.  This will help keep your blood sugar level while you sleep.
• Skip the dessert at dinner and avoid high carbohydrate meals at night.  This leads to reactionary low blood sugar when you are asleep and makes for a bad night's sleep when you are dealing with weak adrenals.
• Do not over-exercise.  Moderate exercise like walking, yoga, pilates and light weights.  This is not time to run a marathon or bike 100 miles.
• Take a B-complex, preferably high in B5 (pantothenic acid), 3 times daily with food to help your body deal with stress.
• If you wake during the night and feel like you are anxious or have racing thoughts, it can be helpful to eat a small protein snack to help your body fall asleep easily again.
• Check with your doctor to ensure that your thyroid is not out of balance.  This can exacerbate the sleep maintenance issue. 

If you follow these directions, most people will recover their sleep in 2-4 weeks.  Be patient with yourself and pay attention to your diet and stress levels.  Usually people will need to continue this program for 3-6 months to ensure that their sleep does not revert.  If you stop this program too soon and your adrenals have not yet recovered enough reserves you may re-experience the insomnia.  This is also a good prevention for future type 2 diabetes because ensuring you do not develop low blood sugar will then help prevent insulin resistant diabetes.