insomnia

fiberartist219

Lately, I'm having some issues staying asleep at night. For example, today, I woke up at 5am, for no reason.

I tried reducing my caffeine intake, and that seemed to make me feel like crap, take naps, and I still was not able to sleep through the night.

Do you think that I might be on too high of a dose of thyroid medication? I'm currently on 88mcg of Levothyroxine (generic Synthroid) and I've been on that and more or less stable for a couple years now. The weird sleep patterns have been going on for a couple weeks. I was last tested in the fall, so it is possible that something changed since then.

I am wondering if this is something that hyperthyroid people go through, or if this is just due to some other factors. I am excited about a few things going on in my life right now and maybe the winter messes me up since there isn't a lot of sunlight and my body can't tell the difference between night and day.

What do you think I should do? Should I ask the doc to drop me to 75mcg of Levo, or should I try something else?

islandmonkey

Insomnia can be a symptom of both hypo and hyperthyroid (too much meds). I would ask your doctor to test your free T3 and free T4 levels and see where they are at. Your free T3 should be in the top 1/3 of the range your lab uses, and free T4 should be about mid-range.

Since you're on a T4 only med I speculate that your free T4 is too high and keeping you awake, but your free T3 is probably too low which could be making the insomnia worse. Do you have any jitters at all...?

I would also STRONGLY urge you to get your Vit D tested; most North Americans are very low and it impacts your T3's ability to act on your cells. The bottom of the range is 30, but you want to aim for optimal which is 60-80.

MmmDrop

Insomnia could also be an adrenal issue which is pretty common with hypo patients who have been sick for so long. Its definitely worth it to get a 24 hour saliva cortisol test done to see.

I used to have a super hard time trying to fall asleep at night, and then would end up waking up multiple times of the night. When I would finally wake up in the morning, mentally I was fully awake and ready to go.. but my body was exhausted. If it is an adrenal issue, its not that difficult to fix.

fiberartist219

Yes, I get jittery sometimes. Usually when my labs come back, my Free T3 is in a good place, and my T4 is borderline hyper, but since I felt good most of the time, the doc has left it alone.

I am doing a little better this weekend, but still not quite there. Last night I slept a full 8 hours, but I still got up at 3am when the wind was howling. I really want to sleep through the whole night.

I'll have to ask about the Vitamin D. I hear that people get low on that when there isn't much sun exposure, and that might be the case for me.

fiberartist219

I'll have to ask about the adrenal hormones too.

islandmonkey

Yes, I get jittery sometimes. Usually when my labs come back, my Free T3 is in a good place, and my T4 is borderline hyper, but since I felt good most of the time, the doc has left it alone.

Where exactly is your free T3? If it's not at least above the mid-point of the range it's too low. Also - I totally got the jitters when my free T4 was too high, and still had hypo symptoms (cold, sleep issues etc) because my free T3 was too low. I'm firmly convinced that people who think they have "gone hyper from meds" because they have the jitters actually just have too much T4 --- I can tell you that my jitters felt NOTHING like hyperthyroid (which I had for 20 years).

I'll have to ask about the Vitamin D. I hear that people get low on that when there isn't much sun exposure, and that might be the case for me.

It's not just in places with no sun exposure, though that's definitely the primary risk - there's also evidence that some of the Vit D is created on the surface of your skin, and it takes 48 hours to be absorbed. In North America we shower too much for that to be absorbed in time.

fiberartist219

Good to know! I'm terrible at remembering the actual numbers from the labs, but I'll try to write it down next time. Thanks for the tip about the T4. I have no idea what hyper feels like, but I have had too high of a dose of T4 before. I was on 100mcg and felt like things were moving a bit too fast for me. He told me before I filled the script for the 100mcg that if I started to feel like that to give him a call to drop it down. I didn't retest, but the 88mcg dosage felt just right, and I've been on it for about two years now. Of course, I've lost some weight since then, so maybe I'm too high again. I should ask him more about the T3 options, but overall I've been well.

I will see how the next couple of nights go. If I don't see improvement by Tuesday, I'll call and make an appointment (since tomorrow is a holiday here in the US.)

islandmonkey

If you ask your doctor's office for a copy of the labs "for your record" then you have a trail. It's a good idea just in case you ever move or switch doctors for any reason - I would write your dosage at the top too so you know what you were on when you got the labs done. And maybe even how you were feeling at the time.