Help with Elevated Cortisol

Training
1

Christian,

Recently I took a 5 point saliva test to check my cortisol levels. I get up at roughly 4:30 and train from 5:45 to 7:00 5 days per week. At 8 AM, my levels are only slightly above the norm; however, by noon, my levels are way high compared to the norm. By late afternoon, my levels are close to the norm; however, rather than continuing to drop into the evening, my levels start climbing consistently all the way through midnight.

My struggles with sleep drove me to take the cortisol test in the first place. I’m in bed by 9 PM and usually go right to sleep. The challenge is waking up around 3 AM and struggling to go back to sleep until time to get up.

From my test results, it appears that my cortisol levels are spiking too early. My challenge is what to do. My macros are roughly 35% protein, 35% carbs, and 30% fat with the bulk of my carbs following my morning workouts.

For what it’s worth, my only caffeine is a little pre-workout right before training. I used to drink coffee first thing in the morning but gave it up in hopes that it would help my sleep. It hasn’t made a difference however I see no reason to go back.

Any insight you might offer will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

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how many days a week you are working out ? what does you workout routine look’s like ?

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Just a quick suggestion here kpamidon. What you described just now about your upside down cortisol pattern and sleep issues is highly compatible with the dolphin chronotype, one of the four chronotypes described by Dr. Michael Breus.

You don’t have to take my word for it, but I believe you will get a lot of useful information from his book “the power of when” wherein he explains each chronotype (which is linked to genetics) and gives you ample suggestions on how to optimize your circadian rhythm by making tiny adjustments in your daily schedule to make it better suited to your chronotype.

There’s real science behind this, Michael Breus is no joke. He has a PhD in clinical psychology and is both a diplomate of the American Board of Sleep Medicine and a fellow of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. Plus the guy brings out a lot of useful, FREE content on his blog (sleepdoctor) and his youtube channel.

I highly recommend his book “the power of when” but if you’re sceptical I would urge you to check out his free material first or take his chronotype quiz and make an informed decision afterwards.

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Thank you for your follow up. I’m currently doing a push, pull, and legs program rotated over five days. After my warm up, my workouts typically stay between 60-70 minutes.

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Thank you. I will definitely check out the information you suggested.

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I know that when i workout 5 days a week and 60-70 mins + including my warm up. My cortisol is going throught the roof.

maybe you should try to reduce frequency and volume a little bit for a few weeks and see what happens.

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7

Thank you for your words of wisdom. Much appreciated.

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Have you looked at taking some glycine in the late evening?

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I’ve heard of it; however, I’ve never tried it. What does it specifically do?

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It lowers anxiety?

Coach Thibs has mentioned it before as a means to help reduce the release of cortisol after a heavy workout. Glycine would need to be taken mid-workout, before cortisol could be released.

In relation to your issue, I would suggest 7-10 gms 6pmish and see if it helps.

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No, glycine should be taken post-workout. You don’t want to inhibit cortisol during the workout. It will lead to low adrenaine and poor workout perfomance.

Glycine is a neurological inhibitor. When you take it it decreases neurological activation (which calms you down and help you relax, but is not good if you are training).

You take it post workout and in the evening to calm your brain down.

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7-10 grams is a huge dose. How about starting with a more modest 3-5g?

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Definitely do that.

Sure, glycine, other supplements and relaxation techniques that decrease brain activity are beneficial to help you unwind in the evening. However, I would focus on the bigger picture though and direct your attention towards resetting circadian rhythm and increasing sleep drive as much as possible.

Circadian rhythm and sleep drive (regulated by adenosine) are the two main systems that dictate the quality/length of your sleep as well as your daytime performance.

The mechanism behind sleep drive is the same for everyone (your adenosine levels start building up during the day and this buildup creates a chemical pressure in the evening that makes you feel sleepy) but not all people have a high sleep drive.

People with low sleep drive for example might only need 6 hours of quality sleep to feel refreshed. Trying to sleep more can inhibit their daytime cognitive and physical performances.

There are also those with medium (7 hours) and high (8+ hours) sleep drive. You going to bed by 9 PM and waking up at 3 AM (consistently?) might be an indication that you’re falling within the 6 hour low sleep drive category.

The feeling of tiredness might not only come from a lack of quality sleep due to higher cortisol levels at night but more from low cortisol levels in the morning. Cortisol and adrenaline wake you up and make you feel alert and energized to start your day in the morning.

So, what needs to be fixed here? Not your sleep drive, probably not your supplement protocol. Most likely it’s your circadian rhythm that’s misaligned with your chronotype. The question is what adjustments do you need to make to regain alignment between circadian rhythm and your chonotype?

You can play with light and body temperature to manipulate cortisol release and place the odds in your favor. Light and temperature are the two main factors that influence circadian rhythm. Off course severe psychological stress can get in the way but if that’s not an issue of yours, you can make small yet effective adaptations with those two elements.

In the morning, increase cortisol and adrenaline by exposing yourself to either bright light (5000-6000 Kelvin), or go outside for a walk. Train in the morning about an hour and a half after you wake up so your core body temperature has enough time to increase and the risk of injury goes down. Training will also boost your cortisol and adrenaline levels.

Take a cool shower if you can and have a high protein/fat breakfast afterwards to favor the uptake of tyrosine and increase cortisol and adrenaline even further. Maybe a small amount of carbs is ok but don’t go big. You want to stay focused and keep cortisol elevated at this time. Don’t worry about mTor activation, you’ll still have carbs later in the day plus amino acids themselves stimulate protein synthesis too.

If you drink coffee, have it somewhere between 8:45 and 9:15 AM if you woke up at 5:45. By noon you want to introduce carbs with protein and some fats to decrease your cortisol levels. Don’t skip lunch, eat.

Between 1 and 4 PM you will experience an afternoon slumber. Don’t drink coffee or take naps to get through it. Napping will only decrease sleep pressure and thus decrease sleep drive and coffee at this hour will make it harder to fall asleep and postpones the binding of adenosine to the adenosine receptors, increasing the risk of having some adenosine leftovers in the morning, making you feel even more tired.

Instead use lighting and be active: bright cold lights in your workspace 5000-6000 k if you can handle it or go outside and take a short walk if you can manage. Sunlight exposure and being active will recharge you by raising blood pressure, heart rate, core body temperature and cortisol levels.

Between 4 and 6 PM your cortisol levels are probably on the rise again, making you feel more alert. Use this prime time window to do your mentally challenging work. Take a small break and recharge between 6 and 7 PM.

Have dinner between 6:30 and 8:00 PM. Now you can introduce a boatload of carbs to effectively bring down cortisol and help you unwind in the evening. You can also use 3-5 g of glycine and 250 mg of magnesium (either via spray or magnesium bisglycinate) right now to further decrease brain activation.

Between 8:00 and 10:45 PM: go ahead and engage in some relaxing activities: socializing, watching tv, talking with your spouse/partner, doing some low intensity chores around the house. Take a hot shower or bath to decrease core body temperature and upregulate the production of melatonin. At 9:15 PM you completely stop blue light exposure to further increase melatonin and decrease dopamine, cortisol and adrenaline. No more mentally challenging tasks at this hour, only relaxing activities.

At 10:45 PM: lights out and go to sleep. This is a lot later than what you are used to but try to slowly build up towards that hour by working with 15 minute increases per 3-5 days.

If you can’t fall asleep after 20 minutes, try stimulus control by getting up and sitting in a chair for 15 minutes before you go to bed again. This might help lower your nightly anxiety of not being able to fall asleep and reinforces the association your brain makes between your bed and sleepy time.

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Keeping My Head Down, Doing My Thing
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Thank you!

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Thank you, Christian! Any further thoughts you might have will be greatly appreciated.

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so what will you do with the thing everybody suggest you ?

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Bigmax,

Thank you to you and the others who contributed. I will go to work immediately to change my daily routine, including glycine. I’m incredibly structured, so the outcomes of any changes made will be easy to measure.

Thank you again for your support. The information that I’ve received gives me a lot of hope for improvement.

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Any particular reason for the specific timing of this, rather than, for example, shortly after waking?

I’m just curious for myself, too.

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That’s a good question and I’ll gladly respond to it.

Consuming coffee right after waking is problematic because at that point in time there is already a natural spike in cortisol and adrenaline (these hormones are naturally secreted by your adrenal glands at the behest of your brain as a stimulus to wake you up).

If you drink coffee when cortisol and adrenaline reach their natural peak, an extra increase in these hormones can cause your nervous system to become overstimulated (adrenaline is a hormone but also functions as a neurotransmitter that causes an increase in brain activity), making you lose focus instead of gaining it when adrenaline levels are too high.

Having coffee right away can cause your sympathetic nervous system and HPA axis to go into overdrive and the parasympathetic side of the autonomous nervous system has to work harder to try and balance out brain activity afterwards.

But what if you have built up a tolerance towards caffeine? That would still be an issue because now you have to drink more to get the same effect. Your bèta-adrenergic receptors, which respond to adrenaline and cause intracellular changes that increase activity and alertness, become desensitized when they’re continously flooded with adrenaline. Having built up a tolerance basically means you’ve become less sensitive to your own adrenaline, which is even worse than being sensitive.

The consequences of an overstimulated nervous system are increases in nervousness, irritation and a decrease in concentration. This is the opposite effect of what you hope to achieve with coffee, in addition to the taste, which is a good, motivated and awake feeling.

But what if your cortisol levels are low in the morning? Does that give you a free pass to have your cup of coffee right away? Well unfortunately, people with this chronorhythm tend to be anxious, neurotic people so they already have to be more careful with stimulants like cafeine due to the increased sympathetic response they get from it.

Having a small cup of coffee in the morning in theory wouldn’t pose a serious issue but the problem is these people can be so sensitive to cafeine and also the addicting dopamine enhancing effect of cafeine that they risk drinking too much and not sticking to one cup. Drinking two cups is highly likely to make them jittery and anxious, which makes them lose focus. If they can’t focus they can’t function which makes them even more anxious.

Delaying your caffeine intake to at least 1.5-3 hours after your wake up time gives you a greater bang for your buck because at this point in time cortisol and adrenaline levels have dropped. By having you cup of Joe now, you can bring those levels up again without running the risk of becoming overstimulated, giving you the desired response you want from cafeine in the first place.

Lastly, depending on cafeine to get your system up and running each day is not a healthy way to increase daytime alertness. You’re much better off using exercise or light stimulation. Cafeine is also a diuretic which makes it even worse as your first go to drink of the day because you just spent a whole night not drinking any fluids. You’re already a little dehydrated when you wake up so it’s much better to start your day by drinking water first.

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Thank you so much for the information!

Personally, I find that some days I wake up in a very stimulated state (particularly if I’ve woken to stressful dreams), and then I have found that I am indeed overstimulated by my morning cup of coffee, and struggle with anxiety before my workout (this is a perpetual problem for me).

On other days, I sometimes wake up feeling extremely lethargic but unable to sleep any further. Then I find I need a small cup of coffee to feel sufficiently awake for my workout. I do also find that more than one cup and I’m back to being overstimulated and anxious again, which makes my workout difficult to get going and get through.

I’m going to give your suggestion a try and see if I can do without coffee until after my workout.

And finally, thank you again for all your posts! I always love reading them because of your patient and detailed explanations, and the incredible kindness of your encouragement. :heart: