Blood sugar problems seem to affect people in many different ways. Sleeping patterns are a consistent source of irritation to millions in today’s active society.

Some think that medicating with a barrage of prescriptions to address the problem of insomnia is the medical answer. However, these medications carry heavy side effects and are not tolerated well by most individuals. In addition, medications do not always address the underlying causes of the sleep irregularities.

BLOOD SUGAR

IMBALANCES

If blood sugar imbalances were considered as a primary cause, many people could save a lot of discomfort in getting this problem under control. When you consider blood sugar, you must consider if the adrenal function is normal. Clinically, those with hypoadrenal function will typically be able to fall asleep, but often not able to stay asleep, whereas, with hyperadrenal function, the individual will be unable to fall asleep. As a result, both an overactive adrenal or an underactive adrenal, as in hypoadrenia, can be implicated with insomnia.

These individuals need to learn how to stabilize their blood sugar levels during the day. It may be necessary to consider the possibility of using an adrenal supplement. This should be done after stabilizing the blood sugar during waking hours. This issue will be discussed in more detail a little later.

STEP ONE

The most important step in this natural approach is the first stage. That is for the individual to learn to stabilize their blood sugar levels. They should never skip their breakfast meal and should especially eat foods rich in protein. For example, the worst breakfast one can eat is a bowl of cereal with toast and juice. This type of breakfast has a very high level of sugar and will cause severe stress of the adrenal glands, especially after sleeping in a restricted (fasting) state. An ideal breakfast should be more protein-centered whole foods with natural grains, eggs, oatmeal, wheat germ, yogurt and beans. If the individual eats meat, they can have a slice of lean meat. The person should avoid adrenal stimulants like sodas, fruit juice, coffee and highly sugared cereals. The individual should eat every two to three hours, consuming low–glycemic foods when they eat such as nuts, seeds, cottage cheese, whole raw or steamed vegetables.

Frequent meals help take the stress off of the adrenals and enable them to recover faster. This, in addition to nutritional supplementation, can have a very positive effect on the sugar imbalance that may be occurring. This is not a quick fix and will have to be continued for a minimum of two to three weeks before the body begins to change the poor metabolic patterns that have been established in the past.

STAGE TWO

If the issue of insomnia continues after two months of following the first-stage changes, the next stage is necessary. Stage two has to do with taking natural whole food nutritional supplements. It has been found by recent research (White, S., 2007) that one of the best supports for this condition is adrenal adaptagens. Adaptagens are plant compounds that have a normalizing function on the hypothalmus and the pituitary–adrenal feedback loop (White, S., 2007).

In this modern stress-induced society, we see the condition of hypoadrenia quite often in the treatment office. This seems to be prevalent in those individuals who are frequently busy, miss meals and consume a high number of simple sugars and caffeine products throughout the day. After missing these meals, they typically complain about irritability and low energy. As a result, they say they crave simple sugars and caffeine to keep them going. The end result in this cycle is chronic stress to the adrenal glands with a loss of function to maintain normal blood sugars levels.

The body depends upon a constant supply of glucose to keep the body functioning properly. When the body is asleep, it requires a constant supply of glucose from stored levels in the form of glycogen, which is kept in supply in the liver and the muscles of the body. Usually the body will lose about 60 percent of its glycogen stores at night while sleeping. A healthy person has plenty of cortisol to stabilize their blood sugar levels while sleeping (Ref). If a person has blood sugar problems, they are not able to tolerate an overnight fast of 8 hours, and the body will go into stress response when the blood sugar levels drop. This will cause the adrenal glands to secrete epinephrine and norepinephrine to try to mobilize glucose (Ref). The release of these stimulatory hormones will cause the person to wake up during the night.

However, the individual who cannot fall asleep has a completely different scenario happening with their endocrine system. These individuals typically have elevated cortisol, especially at night (Ref). Cortisol, a hormone that is released by the adrenal gland, helps to stabilize blood sugar. Cortisol is usually released during the day in between meals, when blood sugar levels need to be maintained at a constant level (Ref). If the blood sugar levels drop, the body releases cortisol (Ref). The body does this by releasing glucose from stored glycogen levels. The normal time release of cortisol is high in the morning, with levels that drop as the day goes on. An abnormal time release of cortisol is when the levels are high at night instead of normally low; a person will not be able to fall asleep, due to the excitatory effect cortisol has on the nervous system (Ref).

This abnormal time-release of cortisol is due to the body being placed in an alarm stress reaction, which places extra demands on the body for which the adrenals will have to compensate. If for example, a person is having severe episodes of mental and emotional stress, the body will require more glucose to meet metabolic demands cause by the added stress. To compensate, the body releases cortisol to increase systemic glucose levels and produce more ATP for the extra demands.

Many other physiological patterns can cause elevations in cortisol, such as food sensitivities, which can activate the associated lymphoid tissue of the GI tract and activate an alarm pattern. In addition, there are a number of pathogenic organisms, i.e. parasites and inoculations can elevate levels of cortisol. Actually, any type of stress whether it be physical, mental or emotional can lead to elevated levels of cortisol; often it is a combination of factors that contributes to the dysfunctional pattern.

EXERCISE

The last consideration we will discuss regarding the sleep and blood sugar issue is related to the need to perform some simple but important exercises to reduce the stress response. It should be noted here that stress always affects blood sugar levels and a blood sugar imbalance will always reduce a person’s ability to manage their stress. More than not, insomnia is blamed solely on excessive stress. If the adrenals are being supported during stress response, the individual may not the physiological side effects such as insomnia. Let’s discuss three exercises that should take very little time out of a busy schedule, but will have a very beneficial effect on the physiology.

Conclusion

In summary, insomnia may often be caused by a stress response. This stress response will have an adverse impact on the adrenal glands and blood sugar. This may cause a cycle that needs intervention by identifying and reducing the stressors, and taking appropriate nutritional steps, such as blood sugar stabilizing and consideration of adaptagens.

Not only will correcting this pattern improve sleep and reduce stress, it will also improve the person’s entire physiology and homeostasis. In addition, once the appropriate support and lifestyle changes are implemented, the individual will notice more elevated and stable moods, improvement in energy and enhanced feelings of vitality and general wellness.

Any questions regarding this article may be addressed to the author at the following address bamashogun@aol.com or visit www.alternative-concepts.com.