Sleepless Nights with the Twins

a tale of two tumors

One of the most annoying and universal symptoms of Cushing’s is sleepless nights.  When I was in the beginning stages of Cushing’s, I would start waking up earlier than my alarm by an hour or so – I would usually get up at 5am, but now I was wide awake at 4am.  Then 3:30am.  Eventually, it was 1:30am and at some point, I would not be able to fall asleep at all until around 5am.

Why does Cushing’s cause sleeplessness?  Cortisol is a steroid produced by the adrenal glands and it is essential for life.  It has a huge number of roles (there will be future blog posts on some of it’s other roles), but one of the roles it is best known for it’s role as a stress hormone.  Your body instructs the adrenal glands to secrete cortisol when it perceives you are facing some sort of threat.  If…

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