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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