@
NilaJones
Hi there!
I've read through the thread, & I recall earlier this year you were having issues with cramping at night. Has this been resolved? I see you are taking large doses of calcium & said was to help with cramping.
From what I can understand from reading through the thread is that you are experiencing increased energy in response to B12 in clams, but this is causing insomnia? Do I have your question right?
For me, if I took my B12 @ night, it likely could cause me insomnia. I know you aren't taking yours @ night. I have 2 responses my body seems to favor when overwhelmed: anxiety & fatigue, depending on how overwhelmed it is.
Insomnia is really tricky. I have struggled with it for most of my life.
There was several periods in my healing journey when my insomnia would temporarily increase. The naturopath at the time said that this was quite normal, & it likely would level out over time with continued support, & it did.
If you are high histamine then this could be one of the key areas that can contribute to insomnia. I also had a very high histamine like profile, but never had mine tested. For about 6months, I used anti-histamines to sleep, and they worked fabulously. This was actually endorsed by my naturopath as legitimate treatment at the time as my insomnia was related to my high histamine.
It is possible that with increased B12 in diet that you could have a heightened histamine response at first. This did happen to me, and I think that it is part of the healing, and why it is so very important to go slow/low @ first as to not further exacerbate this common inflammatory response.
I don't have the exact details, but I know as some of the healing was occurring for me, I know that there was a balancing of serotonin/melatonin/cortisol. All of these are related, and all of these can cause insomnia if out of balance. Many of us have stressed adrenals, and there is a relationship between low cortisol and low melatonin/serotonin. As the adrenals heal from a place of total exhaustion, a common expression could be continued low am cortisol, but heightened pm cortisol. The only way to tell if this is happening for you is to have a saliva test done.
Sleep hygiene also becomes of vital importance, as if the serotonin/melatonin pathway is weak, which is likely is with MAO snp, then it is possible that the normal sleep cascade of increased melatonin as the day progresses could be interrupted. I find I need to shut off all lights a few hours before bed, be very careful of electronic use, and sleep in a 100% darkened room.
I had said that I would ask the sleep experts here that I work with in regards to your propensity for cramps at night. They said that one's entire chemistry & physiology changes at night. A lot of it can be in relation to dopamine, and that is why treatment for restless legs works on the dopamine receptors.
As well, there is the research around beta/alpha waves. I find that brown noise (like white noise but less sharp) really helps me fall sleep & there is some research that it increases the waves necessary for restorative sleep. The doctors also said that there are medications that help support decreased leg cramping.
It's really possible that the increased insomnia is a peripheral symptom caused by healing reactions. If you are going slow/low with supplements then I would just keep trial/error-ing different approaches until you find a place of balance.
Personally, I found sleep to so vital to my healing that there was more benefit in taking the medications (Imovane - was what I used for some time) & getting sleep, then not sleeping & having my healing interfered with.
With respect to added supplements, I would focus on making sure you have adequate magnesium. That has been a big one to support sleep function for me. I think the rest will fall into place as you work through methylation supplements. You are right at different stages it will be important to introduce different cofactors, and you may even want to support the melatonin/serotonin/tryptophan pathway with supplements. You would have to experiment with different stages of that pathway & see what is the most useful point to supplement. For me it's tryptophan.
In my experience the insomnia improved significantly as I moved on in the healing process.
Hope that helps