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Still fighting insomnia

by Tina
(California)

Hi Wray
I am still in a dreadful place with the insomnia. I was suffering from vaginal atrophy but that has gotten a lot enter........don't know if it was from the progesterone or the estriol/estradiol. I am taking 2.25 mg of estriol and a pea size drop of estrogen (estradiol) and 100 mg. of sublingual progesterone. BUT, in spite of that regimen I am still suffering from insomnia. Difficult to fall asleep and stay asleep. I usually get 4-6 hours and that I s it. So exhausted. I will try the GABA as you suggested and try upping my dose of vitamin D. Do you suggest that I increase my dose of progesterone to 200 mg. per night. Do I ever go off of it and take a break. I heard it is good to go off for one week a month. if 200 mg doesn't do it can I increase to 250 or 300 mg. I would be so grateful for any advice. Thankyou.

Comments for Still fighting insomnia

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Nov 25, 2012
 Still fighting insomnia
by: Wray

Hi Tina Are you using the progesterone in your vagina as I suggested? It wasn't clear in your last post that you were taking oral progesterone, or whether it was sublingual drops or lozenges. This is the least effective Delivery system. You are getting very little. Please consider changing to a cream, you'll then get the full benefit of the progesterone. You didn't mention you were only using it at night either, it should be used a minimum of twice a day, as levels begin dropping after about 13 hours. In your first post you didn't mention using oestradiol too, no wonder you can't sleep. Estriol will do this too, but to a lesser extent. Oestrogen is an excitatory hormone, it enhances the glutamate response. Glutamate is our most excitatory neurotransmitter. Progesterone protects against glutamate-induced toxicity, see here, here, here and here. This last paper suggests GABA is low in insomnia, so please try taking the GABA for a bit, and see if that helps. There's reason to believe that insomnia can be the result of inflammation, in other words oxidative stress. The amino acid NAC (N-acetyl cysteine) inhibits glutamate, it's also a potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory. These are two papers on inflammation here and here. Continued below
Nov 25, 2012
 Still fighting insomnia Part 2
by: Wray

Hi Tina Please have a vitamin D test done. For more info on vitamin D levels, test kits etc see the Vitamin D Council, GrassrootsHealth and Birmingham Hospital. Blood levels should be 70-100ng/ml (175-250nmol/L) and not the 30ng/ml (75nmol/L) most labs and doctors regard as adequate. The minimum daily dose should be 5000iu's per day, although recent research indicates it should be 10,000iu's per day, see here. I feel you'll need at least 200mg/day progesterone if not more, but in a form that's absorbed well. Unless you still have a cycle, progesterone can be used daily, there's no need for a break. There's more info on our page about Progesterone Misconceptions. And that you need to get your vitamin D levels up high. Take care Wray

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