Adrenaline surges at night while falling asleep.

[Churt]

I have not been diagnosed with dysautonomia but have many symptoms since I had Covid in November. Just recently I am experiencing adrenaline surges at night right when I drift off to sleep. It happens al night long. It went away for about a week and a half but now it’s back. I am 49 and noticed it might be related to hormones because the surges come when I am about to start my period. I do feel anxiety when I am having these but when they dissipate I feel fine. Any suggestions?

[Pistol]

@Churt - a SSRI or SNRI might help. I take Lorazepam 0.5 mg at times when I am too wired to fall asleep, and it helps. But I don;t take it often due to the high risk of dependency. I used to not be able to sleep, mostly waking up after 3 hours, when the adrenaline level is supposed to drop to accomodate REM sleep. 

[Churt]

@Pistolthanks for your response. I am not sure I want to try an anti depression med yet. I have considered it but I hate taking meds. I am not sure if these adrenaline surges are caused from anxiety or if my nervous system is messed up from Covid. I’m one of those long haulers and have had tachycardia, chest pain and nerve pain since I had it in November. 

[CallieAndToby]

It happens to me every time I try to sleep or rest and when I wake up it kicks in. I'm supposed to see an endocrinologist so I'll update on that. 

[Amyschi]

On 4/17/2021 at 6:11 PM, CallieAndToby22 said:

It happens to me every time I try to sleep or rest and when I wake up it kicks in. I'm supposed to see an endocrinologist so I'll update on that. 

Hi - know this post has been awhile, but did you ever talk to the doctor about this?  I get this in attacks, usually if I have done something more physical - keep awakening with tachycardia, internal shaking, muscles jerking, anxiety and extreme chills.  I believe its possibly adrenaline surges.   I've also seen people say this is related to adrenal fatigue, so that is why I am curious as to the endocrinologist's opinion - I know there is the whole thing with dysautonomia as a result of disruption of the HPA axis? ? Thanks. 

[Jyoti]

I have used, with some success, something called "Cortisol Manager' -- a supplement by Integrative Therapeutics.  I have the same experience and this has helped calm it down some.  Not a panacea, but a tool.  It is awful, and I so sorry that you are dealing with this, as well as any other symptoms since you had Covid, @Churt

[cmep37]

On 4/14/2021 at 6:36 PM, Churt said:

it might be related to hormones because the surges come when I am about to start my period

My period has always been a major trigger for an increase in dysautonomia symptoms - I have heavy periods so I think it's just due to less blood being in circulation.  I had a Mirena IUD fitted about 12 years ago and found it a tremendous help - a couple of months after I have it inserted my periods stop and I generally get about 3 years without a monthly bleed and when my periods do restart I get another one put in!

The thing that I have found most helpful for night-time adrenaline surges is 100 mg of Trazodone around 6pm - a low-dose antidepressant which helps me sleep better and for longer periods of time.  Before Trazodone I rarely slept before 3am and only slept for 30-60 minutes at a time before waking with a jolt, now I get to sleep around 1am and sometimes sleep for as long as 3 hours at a stretch.  I have no grogginess the next day and I have no other side effects from it

[CallieAndToby]

On 5/21/2021 at 10:25 AM, Amyschi said:

Hi - know this post has been awhile, but did you ever talk to the doctor about this?  I get this in attacks, usually if I have done something more physical - keep awakening with tachycardia, internal shaking, muscles jerking, anxiety and extreme chills.  I believe its possibly adrenaline surges.   I've also seen people say this is related to adrenal fatigue, so that is why I am curious as to the endocrinologist's opinion - I know there is the whole thing with dysautonomia as a result of disruption of the HPA axis? ? Thanks. 

Oh you know I was referred to 3 endocrinologists in my city and they all denied my referral. Now I've been accepted to Mayo Clinic in Jax and I have to wait till July. They think I could have adrenal hyperplasia or PCOS, the adrenal hyperplasia makes a lot of sense to me symptomatically though. 

[Bunny123]

On 4/17/2021 at 4:59 PM, Churt said:

@Pistolthanks for your response. I am not sure I want to try an anti depression med yet. I have considered it but I hate taking meds. I am not sure if these adrenaline surges are caused from anxiety or if my nervous system is messed up from Covid. I’m one of those long haulers and have had tachycardia, chest pain and nerve pain since I had it in November. 

 

On 4/17/2021 at 4:59 PM, Churt said:

@Pistolthanks for your response. I am not sure I want to try an anti depression med yet. I have considered it but I hate taking meds. I am not sure if these adrenaline surges are caused from anxiety or if my nervous system is messed up from Covid. I’m one of those long haulers and have had tachycardia, chest pain and nerve pain since I had it in November. 

I have had this exact problem. Did you ever find any answers I’m at my wits end I’m starting to dread bedtime now I’m exhausted everytime I’m about to drop off to sleep I have a huge heart surge so I wake up again and it happens over and over until eventually I finally fall asleep I too had tachycardia and chest pains after covid much worse after the vaccine 

[Ancient Mariner]

I had these adrenaline rushes for years with insomnia.   I thought I was going crazy. Before being diagnosed with dysautonomia various Doctors had me try a CPAP machine, suggested using CBD (which I did not try after visiting a CBD store), change in diet, all of which did nothing.  Finally, when I dreaded (panicked) going to bed at night I recorded one horrible night on my I phone.  I made 9 trips to the bathroom and my blood pressure was in the 180’s.  I shared it with my #3 doctor’s nurse, who cringed but didn’t know what to do (another story).

I got the Calm app.  It teaches you to meditate.  I did it daily for a year and it did help a lot but I would still have some anxiety at night.  When I found Neurologist #4 she put me on 75 mg of Zoloft, taken in the morning, along with my other meds.  It took a while but it worked.  In addition to relieving the anxiety, it also helped lesson the nighttime trips to the bathroom. I still take my I phone to bed and if I do have trouble sleeping I listen to my Calm app, which works more times than not.  I am trying to get up at the same time every day.  If I do not exercise I have a much harder time sleeping at night.  

When you record a terrible night on a mobile phone as it happens, I found it much more dramatic and accurate of how I felt, rather then trying to recall it later.  I slept in a guest room to save my husband’s sanity.  

[Salieri]

On 4/14/2021 at 6:20 PM, Pistol said:

@Churt - a SSRI or SNRI might help. I take Lorazepam 0.5 mg at times when I am too wired to fall asleep, and it helps. But I don;t take it often due to the high risk of dependency. I used to not be able to sleep, mostly waking up after 3 hours, when the adrenaline level is supposed to drop to accomodate REM sleep. 

The stigma of dependency around benzodiazepines nearly kept me from avoiding unnecessary emergency room visits. My doctor was fine with me keeping Xanax in my routine. I'm lucky because most don't want to do that. If I have a really bad adrenaline dump that raises my heart rate and blood pressure suddenly in the night and wakes me up, as long as I am not gasping for breath and having chest pains, I take my beta blocker and a dose of xanax and wait it out. This has definitely reduced the amount of times that the paramedics have had to come and take me to the ER. They were coming so often that one of them stopped asking what was wrong when he would call into the usual hospital I'd go to and commented on my new pair of shoes heh 

If you decide to use any psychiatric meds to help control this, I highly recommend not telling anybody except people who are directly involved in your caregiving. There is no shame in needing something that really helps you keep going through life as normally as possible but people can and will judge you. You also run the risk of your medication getting stolen, which has happened to me. 

Everything runs the risk of dependency. People become dependent on laxatives because of dysautonomia but nobody is commenting on their addiction to them.

[Picklesquish]

I agree. Quality of life is most important to me. 

[MikeO]

9 minutes ago, DysautonmiaMatt said:

Beware if you pharmacy changes its suppler of any med

I have seen this come up so many times in my journey. My nurses have brought this up, folks in my cardio circle complain frequently about it and even my local pharmacy queued in when i just had a prescription transferred luckily the MFG did not change.