Re: HPA Axis & Stress (longterm - please read)

My sleep has been terrible my whole life. A total lack of discipline. As I said before I've not gone to bed before 10pm for more than a week at a time. I frequently stayed up late into the night and slept during the day. It's always been difficult to hold down jobs/study because I am falling a sleep during the day when I do have to be up early.

I have noticed that when I go to bed around 10pm, I am waking at 3:30-4am wide awake, for no apparent reason. I think this is the cortisol/adrenaline misfiring at the wrong time due to my circadian rhythm being totally wack/out of sync. I'm not sure how long it will take to stabilise it, but I'm determined to be in bed at 10pm every day without fail for the foreseeable future. No late nights at all.

I've seen big changes in my mood in just a few days and my flare ups (dermatitis) around the creases of my nose,beard and scalp has not happened. I've not changed what I've been eating so it can't be related to food.

Can I suggest you implement a similar plan of being in bed at 10pm and no computer/television one hour before then? If you are going to the toilet so much during the night maybe you are taking in too much fluid too late in the night?

I may start trying this :

http://www.rejuvinstitute.com/why-do-i-always-wake-up-at-3am

if I keep waking up at 3-4am.

''3am is when your liver regenerates. To do so, it needs glycogen. The problem is that adrenaline causes your cells to use up glycogen. So if you are often stressed, your body may not have enough glycogen for the liver to regenerate at 3am. If your liver cannot get the glycogen it needs, your adrenal glands will compensate by releasing adrenalin, which is why you are wide awake and ready for action, not exactly a state you want to be in at 3am.''