If there is one thing that you should learn from this page it is that a good night sleep is very much the result of balanced adrenal glands. If you suffer from adrenal imbalance you will have sleep troubles and energy issues because your sleep cycle is controlled by your adrenal glands. In a normal sleep cycle the body releases a hormone called cortisol early in the morning to wake you up and give you "pep" in your step. The amount of cortisol in your body slowly decreases throughout the day reaching its lowest point between midnight and 4:00am to help keep you asleep. Far too often this pattern is reverse causing a patient to be tired in the morning and lying in be awake at night. The other pattern is making enough cortisol in the morning which will cause you to be tired all day.

Here is an example of an adrenal test ran on a patient that couldn't fall asleep at night and struggle dot get out of bed in the morning.

He has adrenal fatigue or burnout. This is a condition in which the body has been under stress for years and can't keep up with the demands and slows down the production of cortisol. If you see his morning cortisol is low - It should be high to wake him up and get his body ready for the day. His nighttime cortisol is high - It should be low. This is the reason why he had difficulty falling asleep regardless of the medication he took. When the cortisol is high at night it is nearly impossible to fall asleep quickly.

What causes this imbalance? Your adrenal glands respond to all types of stress: physical, chemical, emotional and environmental. Blood sugar issues, infections, overtraining, chronic sickness can also cause stress. Stress normally causes a surge of adrenal hormones to increase your alertness. Too many surges and the body runs out of "adrenal gas."

Adrenal are linked to another reason why you will wake up at night - low blood sugar or hypoglycemia. Throughout the day and at night cortisol helps to maintain blood sugar levels at a normal range. When you have adrenal fatigue and no longer produce enough cortisol and the body can't regulate blood sugar. Traditionally these patients will wake between 1:00am and 3:00am, and occasionally wake with their heart racing.

Below are common symptoms of adrenal issues:

• Cannot stay asleep OR have trouble falling asleep
  
• Crave salt
• Slow to starter in the morning
• Wake up tired even after 6 hours of sleep or more
• Afternoon fatigue
• Dizziness when moving from sitting or lying to standing
• Headaches with physical or mental stress
• Afternoon headache
• Allergies