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Holy gaucamole: sleep meds on kids always have opposite effect

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Posted 11/28/2018 3:02 PM (GMT 0)
Good grief. I am trying to get my son through his senior year of high school and my daughter through online school.

Both of them are in entering their 13 month of treatment. Sleep is starting to become an issue again ( I really hate Winter). I swear whatever med they are given to try has an opposite effect. What is up with that?

Signed a mama chicken with ruffled feathers
Posted 11/28/2018 3:38 PM (GMT 0)
I don’t know what’s up with that, but I have that tendency as well. I’m only a kid at heart smile
Posted 11/28/2018 3:41 PM (GMT 0)
I'm sorry to hear that. Have they introduced new meds/changed protocol recently? I've always had sleep issues when I treat babesia aggressively, although much less now as I've gotten better. Do they have trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, waking up super early? have sleep issues been part of their symptoms from the infections?

Personally I like higher dose l-theanine when I have sleep issues. But doesn't always work. Other ideas... CBD strains for sleep, holy basil (to calm)... someone told me relora was a good one for sleep.

I've been mentioning this because it is a recent discovery for me, I've found antihistamines super helpful. I think it helps calm my overblown immune response to treatment, which helps keep symptoms in check. Don't know if that is worth looking into?

What sleep med(s) are they using?
Posted 11/28/2018 3:46 PM (GMT 0)
Same things with me, they always make me worse. Here are a few possibilities-

1) there is less sun in the winter so we produce less seratonin and therefore less melatonin which tells our bodies to sleep. No late afternoon sun and screens at night screw up our circadian rhythms.

2) if sleep med.s make it worse, they are making the existing problem worse. For me, i sleep poorly because of low adrenal function so i produce too much adrenaline at night. If i take sleeping med.s or adrenaline blockers it makes my body go nuts because i now just blocked the very hormone it was producing to keep me alive so i go into fight or flight. What helps me sleep is to actually raise my cortsiol before bed and ill have less adrenaline dumps.

Doctors just throwing out sleep med.s is kind of lazy, especially with a complex scenerio like lyme, IMO. The underlying problem needs to be found
Posted 11/28/2018 6:33 PM (GMT 0)
WBF - Always remain a kid at heart. Just wrote that in my son's recent 18th birthday card smile

Sebreg - You just turned on a light bulb. I forgot we took my daughter off Hydroxyzine which has antihistamine properties. I am going to try Zyrtec tonight! Sleep has always been a part of their issue for the past four years. Son's issue is staying asleep. Daughter's issue is falling asleep and staying asleep. Meanwhile, I could sleep the whole darn day. Wish I could share some of my zzzzs! Thanks for the ideas.

Aerose - Interesting what you said about raising cortisol levels before bed. You might be onto something! Thanks.
Posted 11/28/2018 7:55 PM (GMT 0)
Other antihistamine options to try before bed are inositol, butterbur and xyzal. Xyzal is a strong H1 blocker and inositol & butterbur are what Buhner recommends for mast cell issues
Posted 11/28/2018 7:58 PM (GMT 0)
Wow! Look at you go with the info. My son may have been the one to have gone to school today but I just totally got schooled by you in antihistamines!

Aerose91 said...
Other antihistamine options to try before bed are inositol, butterbur and xyzal. Xyzal is a strong H1 blocker and inositol & butterbur are what Buhner recommends for mast cell issues

Posted 11/28/2018 11:38 PM (GMT 0)
Nice! I hope the antihistamines help!

Thank you for the suggestions Aerose91, I wasn't familiar with any of those. I will research them, maybe end up trying some of them myself smile
Posted 11/29/2018 12:37 AM (GMT 0)
Aerose,

Interesting info. A couple questions.

1). What do you do to raise your cortisol levels before bed?

2). How did you discover the underlying problem and how to fix it? Did a doctor test your cortiosol levels and give you a protocol to follow?

I had my cortisol tested 2 years ago and it was out of whack, but I was not told what to do about it. I don’t think mine was that bad, though.

I rarely have trouble going to sleep now but do have troubled sleep from pain, numbness, and sometimes other weird symptoms like feeling like I can’t breathe or I’m about to die, or wild intrusive thoughts. Doesn’t usually last too long, though, except the pain and numbness.
Posted 11/29/2018 1:04 AM (GMT 0)

PeppermintTea said...
Sleep has always been a part of their issue for the past four years. Son's issue is staying asleep. Daughter's issue is falling asleep and staying asleep.

PeppermintTea,

Your daughter sounds like me the first 27 years of my life.

This article lists that as a babesia symptom. https://www.gordonmedical.com/babesia-like-organisms-bablo-consideration-signs-and-symptoms/. I have always been baffled by his articles on babesia and bartonella, though. I most closely associate with bartonella and didn’t really consider babesia for a long time, but I had most of the symptoms he lists as babesia, especially all my life up until I got sick.

I don’t have the dementia-like cognitive stuff or the severe anxiety. I have body PAIN and bouts of rage that I associate with bart.
Posted 11/29/2018 1:13 AM (GMT 0)
FWIW benadryl is a common sleep aid and can cause reverse reactions (make you awake). Trazodone is an antidepressant used as a sleep med so it could also cause you to stay awake, and has something of an anxiety effect. I have trouble with sleep meds too.
Posted 11/29/2018 1:17 AM (GMT 0)
For me, adrenal fatigue was my first presentation so it's always a problem for me. You can get either and ACTH stim test or a 24 hr saliva cortisol test. Ive had both and they always show low cortisol.

Licorice helps a bit to raise cortisol before bed but also eating soon before bed takes the stress off your adrenals for the night. If i really need it i take .5- 1mg of hydrocortisone before going to sleep but that usually doesn't help much.

I get the insane nightmares, feelings of dying etc while sleeping. It's awful. Often times I'll wake up spitting out pieces of my teeth in the morning from grinding my jaw so hard. Im sorry you have to experience that
Posted 11/29/2018 1:50 AM (GMT 0)
The forum seems to be having problems with the quote function.

I’ve let the site Admin know
Posted 11/29/2018 6:17 AM (GMT 0)
Ha ha, ya , I couldn't follow this , whos quoting who here??

Then I come across Girlies comment, ..............wasn't Lyme brain coming back.
Posted 11/29/2018 7:02 AM (GMT 0)
Haha.. Astroman - It is hard to tell who is quoting who!

Hopefully it will be fixed tomorrow.
Posted 11/29/2018 6:06 PM (GMT 0)

WalkingbyFaith said...


"I get the insane nightmares, feelings of dying etc while sleeping. It's awful. Often times I'll wake up spitting out pieces of my teeth in the morning from grinding my jaw so hard. Im sorry you have to experience that "

Walking by Faith - that is no way to spend your zzzzzs. That is horrible.
Posted 11/29/2018 7:16 PM (GMT 0)
That wasn’t me. That’s Aerose. He suffers horrific things. Breaks my heart.
Posted 11/29/2018 7:17 PM (GMT 0)
Looks like the quote thing still isn’t quite right.
Posted 11/29/2018 7:26 PM (GMT 0)
yah...still not working.


The Site Admin said it's not really supposed to be used for quotes within a quote...but it did work that way before.
Posted 11/30/2018 6:48 AM (GMT 0)
I’ve had awful sleep probs for years, Dr said no more Benadryl but increase melatonin from 5 to 10mg.
NOPE made sleep dreams ridic .
I finally found someone who uses Hemp cbd and learned how to use it and I’ve dropped antihistamines and melatonin at night. Also dropped Gabapentin.
Seems for me melatonin was making night dreams worse.could also be the brand I bought when changing from 5 to 10, (more puzzle work)
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