Trouble With Sleep

[micheller]

Every time I'm just about to fall asleep I get horribly nauseous,hot or cold, start shaking, increased dizziness. Anyone else get this?? I have no idea what this is from but it happens more often than not. I haven't found a trigger or common factor on the nights it does happen. If I'm laying in bed reading or doing something I'm ok so I don't think it's from laying down. It's only right before I fall asleep and the nausea is so severe it makes me jump out of bed. It's exhausting and I usually lay in bed reading until I can't stay awake anymore but by that time it's 2 or 3am and I have to get up at 7.

[reg1979]

I get the shakes often at night. Mostly buzzing, tingling or twitching in my extremeties or face.It gets worse when the weather changes. I have had gastroparesis and some kind of nerve issues for about 5 years now. Although I've been sick for years, the sleep issues have been around for the past year or so. On bad days I wake up at 3am and can't get back to sleep so I average about 3-4 hours of sleep a night. 5htp seems to help with my sleep but it doesn't relieve the nausea, pain or nerve symptoms.

[blueskies]

I get muscle twitching now. It's relatively new. I first started in early January and I associated it with a med change especially when it went away a few days after discontinuing the new med. However it has come back.

My night goes like this. I get very tired. Move from the couch to bed. Just start to relax and muscle twitching starts and lasts for a couple of hours. I can't get to sleep until it stops.

They aren't the same as the hypnogogic jerks I get occasionally -- I've had those for years and they will jerk me back to full consciousness and then I'll fall back asleep really quickly. These muscle twitches are different.

On a good night, what with it taking 2 hours to get to sleep and then waking often as now is my habit means that 5 hours of total sleep is a 'good' night for me. I'm exhausted.

I nearly forgot to mention that it is also quite common for me to have a bout of tachycardia about 5 minutes after I lie down to sleep.I either lie there and wait for it to end or get up and walk about a little and it will stop. Weird for me that the walking around helps at this time because usually when I walk or stand I will experience tachycardia.

blue

[gjensen]

My sleep issues wax and wane and vary.

The last couple nights and tonight, as I drift off my esophagus spasms (or something) where it and the stomach would meet. then it tightens and relaxes, tightens and relaxes. My jaws chatter, and I stop breathing, and begin to have trouble breathing.

I get heart pain with this to. Not reflux. Heart pain that radiates into my left arm.

I occasionally can get some reflux, I know what it feels like.

I get this same heart pain during the vaso vagal test. Other things trigger it to.

The muscle twitching waxes and wanes to. That can come on when I relax and not. It is acting up a bit tonight, but not bad. Sometimes they can get intense enough to be painful.

I often have a sleep transition issue, where apparently I stop breathing altogether. This can carry on all night. I have went as long as a few days with no real sleep. Fortunately, I usually get a little. I can go through periods where I have no trouble at all.

I have had late night apnea episodes (I guess that is what they are) where I wake up feeling like my lungs are empty, and I have a very hard time getting back to breathing. Often this accompanied with a need to swallow that I cannot do.

Every night is different.

[looneymom]

Sleep issues have been a problem for my son in the past. Have your norepinephrine levels been checked or have you had a neurotransmitters test ran? This could provide some information about why you may be having issues with sleep. My son has high norepinephrine, glutamate, dopamine and low GABA levels. These have to be in balance or they can cause sleep issues and problems with tremors.

My son takes extended release clonidine at night and this helps him sleep. It lowers norepinephrine levels and dopamine levels.

The immunologist that my son is seeing has also started my son on a low amount of GABA. GABA is an amino acid, that should be made by Glutamate. However we are not sure why enough is not being made, so it is being supplemented at a low dosage. We are trying to get his GABA to come up so his tremors will subside. My son has been on the supplement for 2 weeks. I think I am seeing less tremors but they have not stopped completely. So I am going to continue to give the supplement for awhile longer as long as it does not make things worse. Too much GABA can make things worse, so our doctor has told me to monitor this carefully.

The high glutamate levels can be caused by several different things and can cause neuropathy problems. High CaM Kinese, and MSG can cause these levels to be high. I am giving my son taurine an night to help disregulate the CaM Kinese. Taurine will also help with sleep issues. I am also reading food labels for MSG.

I have also learned about a product called True Calm. It has GABA and Taurine (low dosages) with some other supplements that help these other two absorb better. I should be getting this product today and I will be trying it with my son at night. Since I have started my son on the GABA and Taurine at night, I have also been able to lower his Clonidine down to .2 and he is still able to sleep through the night.

Rachel