Catherine

How to Get A Good Night’s Sleep, When Mold Won’t Leave You Alone

Have you tried EVERYTHING to tackle your mold illness-induced insomnia to no avail? Are you falling asleep, but not staying asleep, and waking every hour or two, so much so, that you awake unrested and irritated? Do you feel chronically tired, fatigued, and sleep deprived even when you do rest? You are not alone. I get emails from readers seeking advice and tips for getting to sleep, staying asleep, and combatting mycotoxin-induced fatigue almost every week. This is because sleep issues are at the top of the “most problematic and debilitating” symptom list for many people suffering from mold toxicity. And, while sudden-onset insomnia in an otherwise healthy individual should, in my opinion, be a clue for doctors to look for mold and mold exposure as the potential cause, or to at least rule it out, unfortunately, since insomnia is a symptom and side effect of almost every illness and drug, quite a long period of sleepless nights usually accumulates before mold is finally discovered.

I know too well how the whole sleep or lack thereof quandary can send even the most level-headed person into a downward spiral. My own experience of insomnia from mold toxicity put me over-the-edge and into a dark place of feeling anxious, overwhelmed and incredibly hopeless. I thought I was tough and could handle whatever the illness threw at me. Then I stopped sleeping. I was toast, because let’s face it, when you’re only sleeping 4 or less hours per night, your body is NOT recovering. It doesn’t even have the time to do all of its sleep-induced upkeep, like muscle and tissue growth and repair, immune system boosting and fortification, growth hormone release, appetite balance and regulation, brain energy and function enhancement, memory consolidation and retention, among many others. Without sleep, you stay sick and pretty much walk around with gauze over your eyeballs and in literal brain fog. Not getting sufficient sleep also causes your body to shut down to an even greater degree than it already is from the mold-toxin overload, which is obviously incredibly unhelpful when you are trying desperately to heal. (Note: During sleep is the only time the glymphatic system removes toxins from the brain via cerebral spinal fluid.)

So, to address this huge problem and to answer some of your questions in a longer format than I can in an email response, I thought I would write another post on sleep and insomnia in particular. (To read my previous post about sleep click HERE. That post establishes why mold in your environment can cause sleep problems.) This post will be focused on getting a good night’s sleep no matter where you are in the recovery process. Now, I realize that if you are living without sleep right now, this may seem impossible, but I assure you that there is always something that can be done and a remedy that can be tried no matter what. Some things will work for you and some things won’t. No one solution will be instant–sleep is one of those things that when you find what works, you may have to titrate up until you hit the perfect “dose” to get you sleeping through the night. You just have to keep plugging away and trying different things until you find what clicks for you. It may even be a combination of many things that creates the perfect solution. For example, I found insomnia relief from sleeping on the floor. Sounds crazy, but I will explain more in a moment. So, please don’t lose hope. A solution could be only one step away and could make an enormous difference in your mental, emotional, and physical health.