If You Find It Especially Hard to Get Up in the Morning

"I sleep, but it doesn't feel like I slept. The morning is the hardest."

Those who say this have something in common. They feel a little better by the afternoon. They barely rise in the morning and drag their bodies out, but by evening their minds actually grow clear.

And in that state they stay awake until late at night. The next morning is hard again.

What Makes You Get Up in the Morning

The body has a device that prepares for the morning.

From before dawn, a hormone called cortisol slowly rises. Before you open your eyes, it has already raised your blood sugar, raised your blood pressure, and suppressed inflammation. The body prepares in advance to start the day.

So cortisol is highest in the morning and lowest at night. This curve creates the rhythm of the day.

For those who find the morning especially hard, this morning hill is low.

Why Does It Get Low

Cortisol is a hormone meant to help you get through a crisis. In danger, it pushes the body to hold on.

The problem is when the crisis does not end.

• When inflammation continues somewhere in the body for a long time
• When absorption has collapsed from long-standing diarrhea or digestive trouble
• When sleep has been lacking for a long time
• When tension has continued for years
• After recovering from a severe illness

The body keeps drawing out cortisol. And at some point, it can no longer make as much as it draws out. The regulatory device has grown exhausted.

This is not laziness. It is the mark of a body that has endured for a long time.

It Comes With These Faces

• Cannot get up in the morning. Actually better in the afternoon
• Not refreshed even after sleep
• Startled by small things, slow to recover
• Craving salty food
• Vision going dim when standing up
• Catching colds often that last long
• Not holding up under stress the way you used to

The last one is especially important. What you used to endure, you now cannot. It means the body's reserve has vanished.

But Here You Must Be Careful

If you read this far, you will want to conclude "my adrenals are exhausted." There is much of that talk on the internet too.

I use that phrase cautiously.

First, there is not yet a consensus in the medical community on whether this state can even be called a single disease name. In many cases it is not clearly confirmed by testing.

Second, far more dangerous illnesses come with the very same face. Those must be ruled out first.

These too come as morning fatigue	How to rule them out
Hypothyroidism	Blood test
Anemia	Blood test
Diabetes	Blood test
Sleep apnea	Severe snoring, breathing stopping during sleep
Depression	Loss of interest, mood sinking
Actual adrenal disease	Blood test — rare, but dangerous

These are things you must not while away time on by taking herbal medicine. For such patients I recommend testing first. That is the order.

And Something You Must Know

On the internet there are things sold with claims to "revive the adrenals." There is a real danger here.

Some products contain licorice. Licorice works in the direction of preventing cortisol from being switched off, thereby prolonging its action. It can feel as though you have a burst of energy for a moment.

But at the same time, licorice pushes potassium out and holds on to sodium and water. Taken in large amounts over a long time, it causes swelling, raises blood pressure, and in severe cases makes the heartbeat irregular.

Taking things on your own for a long time because they are "good for the adrenals" calls for caution. It amounts to adding such a burden to an already exhausted body.

What I Do

For these patients I do not push the body. Because it is a body with no reserve left to be pushed.

If you suddenly give a large amount of food to someone long starved, they fall ill. If you give a strong stimulus to an exhausted regulatory device, the same thing happens.

So I keep an order.

First, I find the cause that keeps forcing it to be drawn out. Whether it is long-standing inflammation, a problem of absorption, or sleep. Bailing out water before turning off the tap is of no use.

Second, I restore absorption and metabolism. The materials to make it must come in.

Third, I return the night rhythm. Cortisol must fall sufficiently at night for it to rise in the morning. To fix the morning, you must fix it from the night.

Fourth, only then do I gradually increase daytime activity. Only as much as has recovered.

What You Can Try Starting Today

See the morning sunlight. Ten minutes after getting up is enough. The body's clock is set by light.

Reduce bright screens in the evening. Cortisol must fall at night to rise in the morning.

Lie down before 11 p.m. If you work then because your mind grows clear in the evening, the body mistakes night for day.

Do not skip breakfast. At least eat something.

Exercise only as much as has recovered. For an exhausted body, strenuous exercise is not a stimulus but a burden. Start with a short walk.

To Speak Honestly

That cortisol has a rhythm of being high in the morning and low at night, and that long-standing inflammation and sleep deprivation disturb this rhythm, is a well-known fact.

But whether the expression "the adrenals are exhausted" holds up as a single disease is still under debate. I use these words not as a disease name but as a metaphor to explain a state. Because when a patient truly struggles even though it is not confirmed by testing, a language is needed to explain that struggle.

And how much herbal medicine returns this rhythm has also not been sufficiently clarified in humans. I am telling you what I have observed clinically, not what has been proven.

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If you have been told that being unable to get up in the morning means your will is weak, do not believe it.

It may mean the body has endured for a long time. If so, the answer is not to push it but to first find what forced it to endure for so long.