Apnea is a treatable condition. A common remedy is the use of a CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) machine. The patient wears a mask through which a compressor delivers a continuous stream of air, keeping the airway open and thus allowing uninterrupted sleep. Tired and wired’ is a term coined to describe this peculiar form of being simultaneously tired but unable to sleep. Research has shown that sleep problems often arise when our nervous system remains in ‘fight or flight’ response. Regardless of how tired we feel, continuing the release of stress hormones and the resulting vigilant state, makes it very difficult to switch off our mind and relax our body, and therefore interferes with our sleep.

Elizabeth Boham is a physician and nutritionist who practices functional medicine at The UltraWellness Center in Lenox, MA. Through her practice and lecturing she has helped thousands of people achieve their goals of optimum health and wellness. She witnesses the power of nutrition every day in her practice and is committed to training other physicians to utilize nutrition in healing. Dr. Boham has contributed to many articles and wrote the latest chapter on Obesity for the Rankel Textbook of Family Medicine. She is part of the faculty of the Institute for Functional Medicine and has been featured on the Dr. Oz show and in a variety of publications and media including Huffington Post, The Chalkboard Magazine, and Experience Life. Her DVD Breast Wellness: Tools to Prevent and Heal from Breast Cancer explores the functional medicine approach to keeping your breasts and whole body well.But it’s really critical to have a good source of protein, healthy, fat, and great source of fiber at every meal, because it is not allowing for that stress response to happen in the body, it’s nourishing the body, and that’s exactly what the body needs. Extreme fatigue for at least 3 months (making it very hard to do daily activities), problems with thinking, memory and concentration, flu-like symptoms Glycogen is effectively stored energy in the liver that the body uses during times when there are not as many food calories available to be converted to useable energy. If your blood sugar is not regulated and stable at night, this can make it difficult to go to sleep and stay asleep as well. You feel completely exhausted, but at the same time, you have so much nervous energy you can’t sit still, rest, deeply relax, or have a sound sleep. Most people with ME/CFS and FM can improve their sleep by changing their sleep habits and their sleep environment, matching a solution to a problem. Common problems include:

As your body recovers from hyperstimulation, it stops exhibiting involuntary stress-caused symptoms, including this one. With constant stress (both real and perceived) the adrenal glands become unable to secrete adequate amounts of cortisol thus setting the stage for dysfunction or adrenal fatigue.Okay. We’re going to talk about this pandemic we have, but not COVID, it’s a pandemic of chronic stress. Leichsenring, Falk. “ Is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy the Gold Standard for Psychotherapy?” JAMA, American Medical Association, 10 Oct. 2017. Our ability to feel safe and relaxed, essential to fall asleep and remain sleeping, is driven by how we work and live during the day and their impact on the nervous system.