Okay, next question from Jessica. “Are there particular adaptogens or nutrient supplements appropriate for possibly overactivated locus coeruleus leading to predictable night-time waking for several hours at a time while implementing stress-reduction techniques?”
Chris: Yes. Kavinace tends to work really well for sleep maintenance insomnia where patients are waking up consistently at a certain time. That’s K-A-V-I-N-A-C-E. I think we have talked about that in the curriculum. It’s a form of GABA that readily crosses the blood–brain barrier, and it’s very effective for that type of waking. Definitely sounds like there is adrenalin happening here with tachycardia or the palpitations when she’s waking up. That is a sure sign that stress is what’s driving this, so absolutely crucial to consider things like mindfulness, meditation, mindfulness-based stress reduction, body scans, deep relaxation, deep breathing, EFT, whatever the patient is drawn to and will stick with it that will have a big impact in getting her out of the fight-or-flight response.
CBD can be very helpful, cannabidiol, for this kind of pattern. It doesn’t necessarily stop the wake-ups entirely, but it makes it a lot easier for the patients to get back to sleep. Sometimes there’s a hormonal element here, especially if the waking is happening at the same time every day, so you’d want to check progesterone levels, especially estrogen, progesterone, and DHEA. I know we don’t go over that in detail in this course, but that’s something to consider.