sleep issues

[and123]

#2620

I started doing hot yoga 6 days a week, 6 weeks ago, after many years of getting very little exercise. I am 58, and got more exercise in my 40s but increasingly less in my 50s.Somewhere a few weeks into the yoga I started to have massive sleep problems. I get in bed plenty tired at some normal bedtime (before 10pm) but then as I lie there I wake up more and more. I don’t have anything in particular to think about. I don’t think it is mental anxiety. It seems to be very physical. I might not fall asleep til midnight or later and then I also have a tendency to wake up many times during the night. I’m starting to get so tired it is coming back and affecting the yoga, as well as the rest of my day. Any ideas? Has anyone else had this experience? I expect it to straiten itself out, but maybe there are some suggestions.

[Gabrielle (The Hot Yoga Doctor)]

#10898

Hello Andrea

Welcome to the forum! Can you please tell if you tend to take all morning classes, all evening classes or a mixture of times?

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

[and123]

#10899

My friend and I do a 90 min session with your audio. We do it 3 days a week at 9:30am and 3 days a week at 3:30pm. One day a week we can’t do it, and at least last week that was the only night that I slept fairly normally.

[Gabrielle (The Hot Yoga Doctor)]

#10900

Hello Andrea

Often the time of the day’s class can affect the ability to sleep. Some people become very tired after class. Others become wired. Those who become more restless or active often need to switch their classes to the morning. Others who become tired need to practise in the evening – in effect tiring themselves out so they can fall into bed (or indeed not operate at zombie level during an otherwise active day!).

I am wondering if you can perhaps try to do all your classes at the same time each day to see if the regular time might be better for your body. So for example you could choose all 9:30 sessions one week. All 3:30 sessions the next to see. Do let me know if this is possible. Failing that, you might like to do the 3 similarly timed sessions this week, and the other 3 next week.

Another thing that could be affecting your wellbeing is your ability to breathe. Sometimes in times of stress in class, while we are focusing on the poses themselves, the breath gets held. I don’t think your issue is entirely in the breath but I just suggest that some attention on creating smooth, fluid, pose-appropriate-depth breath. What I mean by pose-appropriate depth is that breath intake changes depending on the body’s position. For example, a breath in a backbend can be very shallow compared with those you take in that 2 minute savasana. And those backbends are the most likely time when the breath is held. Maybe you’ll have something to report about your breath.

Finally, just to confirm, although I am pretty sure I know the answer 😉 that until your new yoga habit, you had no sleep issues at all.

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

[and123]

#10901

Thanks so much for your attention to this.
Prior to hormone replacement therapy including thyroid, starting nearly a year ago, I didn’t have sleep issues. I used to sleep deeply for 9 hours. Prior to yoga, the hormone therapy caused some sleep issues but not too bad…Sometimes I would fall asleep immediately or it could take up to an hour. I might wake up during the night but could fall back asleep very quickly. The yoga though seems to have cause drastically worse sleep issues. I think I’m barely sleeping 6 or maybe 7 hours a night now (which isn’t enough for me), and some nights less than that. It seems no matter when I go to sleep… 10pm, or 11:30pm… I fall asleep around midnight. I might wake up in the middle of the night and be up for hours.

I did have the feeling I should exercise in the evening. One day I tried rebounding for a half hour in the evening and I did sleep better. It was not a dramatic improvement or I would have done that every night.
After yoga i feel good but also tired. I can’t easily move the sessions because I am doing them with a friend and am tied into her schedule. I know she can’t do evenings, unfortunately, or all mornings. She could do all afternoons though… I’ll talk to her, but one thing I could do is add on some exercise in the evening…

[kfi2000]

#10905

Just curious….are you taking medication for low thyroid? If so, have you had your levels checked since you started doing all this yoga?

-Kristin

[and123]

#10908

no, my feeling was to wait a bit but I plan to. Good idea though…

[perspctv]

#10918

You may want to consider seeing a sleep specialist and possibly having a polysomnogram (“sleep study”) if it continues and as indicated … sleep disordered breathing is a much under diagnosed ailment. Hope it clears fast and your normal restful sleep returns …

[and123]

#10919

thanks for all your thoughts. I have temporarily at least solved the issue.. first I went on a juice fast and started sleeping again while doing only juice. Then I talked to a doctor and found out she had 2 patients who this happened to with Bikrams…I think she said their cortisol levels went up though I can’t say if she saw tests or was hypothesizing. Anyhoo, I decided to go off the cortisol I was taking as the Bikrams may be getting my adrenals working naturally, and so far it is successful. Been sleeping and not feeling more tired from going off it.

[Gabrielle (The Hot Yoga Doctor)]

#10920

Hi Andrea

So pleased you have solved the puzzle by realising that the drugs you were taking (beyond the reported HRT and thyroid medications) could be involved. Nice detective work!

Keep us posted please! I am sure there are others ‘out there’ who have (had 😉 ) similar issues.

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

[and123]

#10921

Thanks for your attention to this! I will keep you posted. I’ll be doing more tests, but maybe not for a month or month and a half as I am doing some things for gut bacteria with prebiotic/probiotic first.

[Gabrielle (The Hot Yoga Doctor)]

#10940

Hello Andrea

Just a little shout out to you to wish you well! Are you sleeping any better now?

Namaste
Gabrielle 🙂

[and123]

#10942

I was thinking some days ago that you might be wondering! My sleep has been reasonably fine since I stopped the cortisol. No more massive problems.. just the occasional sleep irregularities I might have had in past years. Thanks for asking.

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