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Bad insomnia at 36 weeks of pregnancy!

by Rebecca
(Weyers Cave, VA)

Dear Wray, I am 36 weeks pregnant with my second child and have been suffering from insomnia for a few weeks. It does not seem to matter what I cut out of my diet and even sleep aids don't help. I tend to fall asleep okay but then wake up somewhere between 2-4 a.m. and cannot get back to sleep. But some nights (such as last night) it took me hours to fall asleep, and then I only stay asleep for an hour or two total.

I have suffered with insomnia off and on since having my first child and Natpro has helped me in the past. I was wondering if it is okay to take progesterone this far into my pregnancy or if it could cause more hormonal problems?

Thank you for your feedback.

Comments for Bad insomnia at 36 weeks of pregnancy!

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Mar 10, 2011
 Bad insomnia at 36 weeks of pregnancy!
by: Wray

Hi Rebecca Progesterone does help sleep, see here. This study shows it interacts with the GABA receptor to promote sleep. High levels of adenosine also promotes sleep, see here and here. Interestingly progesterone increases the release of adenosine, see here. I can't see there being a problem in using progesterone at this late stage. As you know progesterone increases greatly in the third trimester, often going above 400ng/ml. It is possible your level has not increased sufficiently, or has dropped slightly. Have you had increased stress recently, as this drops progesterone levels? It sounds as if your blood glucose could be unstable, waking in the night can indicate it's dropping too low. This would prompt the brain to send a message to your adrenals to make adrenaline. This hormone prompts the liver to convert glycogen into glucose to prevent the drop. The surge of adrenaline wakes us, in some cases with a heart beating faster than normal. The adrenaline would prevent sleep occurring after waking up. Progesterone helps control blood glucose, as you can see from the adenosine paper above. It also helps calm down the adrenaline response. If you think I could be on the right track, please consider taking 2000-4000mg of the amino acid glutamine about an hour to half an hour before bed. This can be used by the brain in place of glucose, but being an amino it's metabolised very slowly into glucose. Are you getting enough vitamin D? This nutrient is critical for our health, and that of the developing foetus. A low level has been implicated in sleep disorders, plus it reduces the benefits of progesterone. We do have a page on Pregnancy you might like to look at. Take care Wray
Sep 05, 2015
 sever insomnia at beginning of pregnancy
by: Dana

hello Wray
I'm 39 years old and in the last 4 years suffering from severe insomnia periods which includes consecutive sleepless nights. On other times I sleep up to 4-5 hours a night, which I kind of got used to it. It all started 4-5 years ago due to extended period of unemployment and stress. now I feel quite OK but still suffers from the insomnia in variable levels.
In the last 6 months I'm trying to get pregnant and last month have succeeded but had miscarriage in the first month. From the very beginning I couldn't sleep at all for few days, and couple of days after slept very little and very light. till now, I'm almost a month after miscarriage I sleep very lightly for 2-3 hours every night or can't sleep at all. I stars thinking I couldn't carry pregnancy at all. what do I do?
Thank you
Dana

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