Going to throw out a few ideas from Ben Lynch's book Dirty Genes. You might have a slow COMT, which would slow the clearance of neurotransmitters, leaving you on the wired/anxious side.Wondering wrote:I am struggling more and more with anxiety.
For slow COMT, are you more of a workaholic, but then eventually crash? Did you have PMS or fibroids pre-menopause? Means you're not clearing catechols (eg tea, coffee, chocolate), estrogen, dopamine, norepinephrine and epinephrine well. He recommends adaptogens like ashwaghanda, magnesium, meditation and working on methylation with creatine and phosphtidylcholine (do you have MTHFR or other methylation issues?). Watch your chemical exposure (eg Roundup and the like), eat more beets, carrots, cruciferous veggies and bitter vegetables like dandelion greens and radishes to support the liver. He also recommends eating larger amounts of your protein earlier in the day, and eating lighter in the evening. He also says that phosphatidylserine can help with sleep, along with magnesium malate, niacin (which uses up methyl groups) and B6. And don't watch TV news or read news in the evening. Sets you up to ruminate.
I personally do all of the above, except the phosphatidylserine and ashwaghanda, and find I can sleep through the night now. Eating more of my daily protein earlier in the day (I used to eat most of my protein at night), and using creatine and PC are the last 3 things that likely made that positive shift for me because I was doing everything else (meditation, organic veggies, magnesium, B6). The interesting thing is that my COMT is considered "normal," hence his theory that any gene can become compromised or "dirty."
If this gets you part way to better sleep, you might consider reading the whole book for other places to fine-tune your approach.