Sleep, Stress, and Adrenal Fatigue

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Sleep, Stress, and Adrenal Fatigue

Adrenal Fatigue is a decrease in the adrenal glands’ ability to carry out normal function. It is commonly caused by chronic stress from any source—emotional, physical, mental, or environmental— that exceeds the body’s capacity to adjust well to the demands placed on it by the stress.

Symptoms include:

Asthma, allergies or respiratory complaints
Dark circles under the eyes
Dizziness
Dry skin
Extreme tiredness an hour after exercise
Frequent urination
Joint pain
Lines in your fingertips
Loss of muscle tone
Low blood pressure
Low blood sugar
Low sex drive
Lower back pain
Numbness in your fingers / Poor circulation
Weight gain
Difficulty getting up in the morning, even after enough sleep
Weak immune system
Feeling fatigued
Inability to handle stress
Salt cravings
Higher energy in the evening; get your “second wind” when you should be winding down

Even if you have a few of these symptoms, there’s a good chance you may have stressed out adrenals, unless you have no stress in your life. Who’s that these days? I know you can recover from adrenal fatigue. I have recovered more than once. Here’s what you can do:

Sleep—it’s one of the most important things you can do to restore your adrenals, but when they are stressed you often can’t sleep well. Here’s what you can do:

Give yourself permission to sleep. Even if it means taking a short nap in the middle of the day, you’ve got to sleep to heal. When you force yourself to power through the groggy afternoon slump, you stress your adrenal glands even more.
Rest for 15 minutes during the day with your feet up. Your adrenals know when you’re down and your feet your feet are up. It makes them happy. Find a couch or whatever you can and give your body a break.
Sleep in. The best hours of recovery in the morning are between 6 and 9 am. The more you let your body sleep when it wants to, the faster you will heal.
Go to bed early. You need to be in bed between 9 and 9:45 pm. And that’s not reading a novel or answering emails. It’s sleeping. The sleep you get before midnight is crucial for rebuilding your adrenals.
Reduce stress. Too much cortisol (pumped out in response to stress) in your system in the evenings keeps you from sleeping deeply, causes you to wake frequently during the night, and to awaken in the morning unrefreshed.
Avoid coffee. Caffeine really stresses the adrenals. A holistic MD that I interned under said coffee was to the adrenals like whipping a poor tired horse and making him keep going when he just wanted to lie down and rest.
Avoid sweets and simple carbs. They trigger a cortisol release, which is another stressor for the adrenals. Avoid bread, rolls, anything made with flour.
Avoid anything stressful before going to bed. Wind down and relax so you can actually go to sleep when you go to bed.
Get off the computer and all other electronics. The light shining in your eyes can cause your body to think it’s morning. You start waking up rather than winding down.
Eating things you are allergic or sensitive too. This is stressful to your body and can stress your body hindering your sleep.