How does Chronic Insomnia due to stress have a relationship with altered metabolism?

Hello again, and welcome back! This following text will be concerned about Chronic Insomnia, and how high stress levels can not only tamper with your mental wellbeing but also with your metabolism. A clarification of this interconnection requires a clear definition of Chronic Insomnia, which I will now provide in the simplest terms. Since the science of metabolism is very big, and we want to precise and detailed, we will only focus on stress.

Insomnia is, clinically viewed, a state of 24 hour hyperarousal, which also means that the body and the brain are too active to be rested and asleep. This disorder is often also viewed as a 3P model, with 3 different categories which are the Predisposing factors, the Precipitating Factors and the Perpetuating Factors. The former describe what an individual must fulfill to start a risk for developing Insomnia, the middle factors are those which strongly trigger the development and the latter is what maintains the disorder and keeps it going. This clinical framework is also known as the Spielman‘s model. Now there are many things which can cause it, such as chemical imbalance or unstable room temperatures and shifts of the Internal Clock. All of this culminates to a biologically impossible state for sleep, which also means that the person cannot sleep, or wakes up constantly.

Proceeding to the next step of connecting two aspects to each other, let us discuss what actually happens in the brain (and in the whole body) while a person experiences great stress. As I had mentioned in my previous posts, the hypothalamus-pituitary axis (HPA axis) plays a great role in the inner regulation of bodily conditions (homeostasis). When a person deals with stress, their HPA axis sends out a great amount of cortisol into the blood, which is a major stress hormone. Now cortisol is also (such as adrenaline) a hormone which makes the liver dump out a lot of the glucose it had actually stored. The blood suddenly turns very sugary since the liver keeps dumping out more and more, so the glucose cannot be absorbed back. When insulin makes an attempt at trying to clear out the sugar, the cortisol blocks the muscle cells and only selectively allows the insulin to work in high-priority organs such as the brain, the heart and some visceral fat tissues. this is why the affected patient can feel weakness in the arms and legs, but still gain weight around the abdomen and palpitations from the thickened layer of fat wrapped around the heart.

Let us now connect this with metabolism and the important role of two hormones. Cortisol, as previously discussed also makes the liver dump out a lot of glucose. The brain, though, which is very sleep deprived at this stage cannot effectively convert this glucose into ATP or the insulin just remains outside of the cell or the brain cells become insulin resistant. All of this is also very dangerous, especially when the brain cannot use the Glymphatic System in the deep sleep phase to clear out metabolic waste. This is when ghrelin, the hormone which makes you feel hungry is produced in large amounts. Studies also show that long term Insomnia patients produce less ghrelin at night. This is major twist. Leptin, the hormone which tells us that we are full and not starving, also decreases. Leptin is actually vital for our sleep so that we don’t wake up at night and start craving food. The levels must essentially peak. As you might guess, in this case, leptin does not peak but rockets downwards. The person then persistently receives signals saying that they must get up and eat something. This altered metabolism makes the body gain weight quickly and since their blood sugar is sitting in their blood most of the time, they are likelier to develop Type 2 Diabetes or insulin resistance.

Another difficult issue is, that without the ‚waste clearers‘ in the deep sleep, the metabolic waste from the cells cannot be cleared. In this case we will take the mitochondria, responsible for generating ATP. The mitochondria releases ROS much more when awake because it costs energy to stay awake. Along with ATP, ROS (Reactive Oxygen Species) also gets produced, but it is toxic. Without the body‘s antioxidants, the ‚fire‘ spreads, causing damage to cellular DNA and the mitochondrial walls. After this fatal damage, you enter the state of Bioenergetic Failure. Because the energy production is hardly anything, everything feels incredibly hard. Climbing up stairs, walking normally and many more activities. Since the brain is a big energy consumer, it dims considerably. Severe brain fog and memorizing difficulties are one of the many things one can experience.

You must have noticed till now how important sleep is for the body and how much pychological stress can harm it‘s functions. There can also be a whole new blog about this in the future.

This was all for today, and I hope you liked it. See you in my next blog!