SERIPHOS->Sleep deprived

Good morning everyone!
I just ordered Seriphos the original formula to see if it would help me get some sleep finally.

I tried one pill last night an hour before bed and I still woke up at 2:30am per usual.
I checked my sleep tracker sure enough I got 20 mins of REM and 30 minute increments of light sleep and the rest I was wide awake in between.
My 4 point saliva test said my cortisol levels are flipped. It's supposed to be high in the a.m. and low in the p.m towards bedtime. Mine are reverse. My bedtime cortisol is HIGH.
This week I'm hoping to take a nother 4 point saliva test.
How many Seriphos are you supposed to take? It's 1000mg per capsule.
Tonight I'm going to try to take 2 Seriphos and 3mg melatonin and Valerian tincture. Some people on this forum say to take Seriphos in the morning as well. What would that do? What's the point of taking it in the morning? Will it elevate my cortisol in the mornings? I'm so groggy and tired every morning.
Thank you in advance,
Lymehater

Hi Traveler,
I took adaptogens for several weeks and it did absolutely nothing. I went through the entire bottle.
It was very disappointing.
My doctors are useless. They suggested, melatonin, adrenal blends, etc but nothing works.

Adrenals can be hard to tackle especially with these infections.

At one point I was only getting 2 hours of sleep a night.. what works for me is getting Indica capsules from a Cannabis dispensary, and taking holy basil and ashwagandha before bed, now I never wake up and those are all natural things. The ashwagandha is supposed to be good for the adrenals and stress hormones.

What adaptogens are good for the adrenals?

lymehater -

My adrenal function was similar - cortisol production was opposite what it should be.

I spent 2 yrs and over $20k w/ an ND trying to correct my adrenal and neurotransmitter functions, GI distress... only to have every single adaptogen and other support shift me into extreme swings. The treatment itself was very unncessful and just added more stress.

I have since discovered two things:

- I have DNA mutations that are creating a complex situation that needs a lot more of an endocrine/neurotransmitter specialty to figure out than I am or anyone I've come across is...

- And over time, the only thing that provided significant relief to my adrenals was quitting my job, and literally checking out of "life" to de-stress and recover. This took about a year to make any progress but it worked and I'm lucky I accidentally discovered what worked.

Now, this is extreme and most people do well on supplementation, it seems. I'm just sharing to point out that there is some level of adrenal recovery that won't come in a bottle - you really do need to slow down, respect the process of treatment and how hard it is on the body, and force yourself to de-stress.

And of course, making more progress w/ treatment will also help.

Let us know how you're doing!

-p

YES - it did improve. My insomnia was clearly related to real stress and adrenal stress and once the real stress was mostly reduced (except for the things we can't control like finances), I made progress w/ tx, which helped the adrenal stress and other physiological effects of tx. And everything kept ratcheting down over time.

I went from 2 hrs a night to 5 hrs in that first year. This past year I've added another hour (usually). I'm not crashing in late afternoon on a regular basis.

I started a biofilm buster late December and lost all my progress! I flared so hard, in so many ways - hard to describe. Insomnia came raging back. I kept treating, detoxing and made good progress on the antibiofilms and about 3 mos later, symptoms lessened, sleeping improved.

I switched to a new antibiofilm a few wks ago and made a little more progress - didn't add time but realized I started dreaming again! Just regular, normal dreams, multiple nights in a row! I haven't dreamt in nearly 20 yrs. Crazy. So the sleep is deeper. Still trying to work up to 8 hrs sleep every night... will keep trying. Might just need to get done w/ tx before that will happen, I don't know.

I would talk w/ your LLMD - it's REALLY good that your job is low-stress. That's critical and you're quite lucky so that's so good. But you clearly need to try some other adrenal support.

And here are a few other things to try that are really tweaks and not major solutions, but maybe all added up might make an impact - they helped me.

PREPARATION

- try to eat a little bit of protein and a little bit of good/complex carbs right before bedtime (nothing sugary or anything that would trigger digestive issues) - like 2 oz steamed chicken plus a little brown rice or butternut squash. This helps reset our digestive cycle to reduce a cortisol surge in the middle of the night (it helps address blood sugar swings and other issues - endocrine function and digestion ---all interconnected). Easy on the water - don't want to have to get up to pee.

And follow a very specific nighttime routine every night:

- make bedtime the same, every night; try to wake up the same time every AM

- start 1 hr before bedtime and finish up all your "stimulating activities" - anything that is interesting or exciting or "responsibilities", duties, etc.

- stop at least 1 hr before bedtime all email, internet searching, phone calls, texting, TV shows, book reading (UNLESS it's boring then reading something boring would be helpful) etc.

- be sure to brush your teeth really well, oil-pulling is also ideal. I never came across any "formal" advice for this - this is my own theory: bacteria in/round teeth can be aggravating to the skin, etc. I have serious TMJ issues and I think it gets aggravated if I forget to brush my teeth - the bacteria get active. Sometimes, the "activity" can wake me up or the TMJ issues (chomping, grinding) can wake me up or disturb sleep.

- take a nice, soothing bath - maybe a detox bath if you can handle the detoxing but nothing intense, soothing - quick warm shower rinse.

- A quick pee before bed

- have your jammies laid out, ready for you to crawl right into bed

- try meditating, breathing exercises

- if you have trouble falling asleep - get up and move to a different place in the house, go for a quick walk down the street... resume reading the boring book, put a warm washcloth across your forehead or chest; don't lie in bed frustrated.

ENVIRONMENT

Take measures to add noise buffers:
- I live in a very old house and don't have storm windows so I get all the noise. I bought 2" thick sheet of foam and cut it down so that it fits snuggly inside the window frame.

Try to black-out your bedroom windows:
- Then I took a large black plastic trashbags and taped a couple of them across my windows openings. There's no graceful way to do it w/out disturbing the paint - I just really didn't care. I'll paint later.

Create serenity:
- My walls are off-white so I hung off-white white sheets over the windows and removed all the color from the decor inside the room so that it's monochromatic, serene and peaceful.

Create comfort:
- make sure room temp is ideal (I like it cool - prefer a fan blowing right on me than being hot); make sure extra blankets are right next to bed if you like it warmer.

- My best sleep was when I splurged on SILK sheets, nothing in the world is better. I actually started sleeping nearly naked because it felt so unbelievably soothing. But couldn't afford that kinda nonsense when I stopped working but found a good microfiber substitute with cheapo sheets at Target. They get a little ragged after a few mos. but cheap to replace.

Remove other aggravators:
- To address chemical sensitivities I use the least-chemically laundry detergent and fabric softener I can find. They don't make organic versions (or their tough to find) but you can get close. I almost always use lavender-scented products - lavender is soothing.

- Reduce EMF exposure by removing all electronics - stereos, clocks, alarms (if you can), phones, computers.

ONLY sleep in your bedroom - don't work in bed, watch tv in bed, eat snacks... adjust so that all you do is sleep in there and it's completely dedicated to sleep.

I hope something in this is helpful!

-p