Another question we get all the time is why does neuropathy get worse at night? Why is that all day long the pins and needles feeling does not bother me. I have very little pain all throughout the day. What is it at night that always makes it worse to the point I cannot sleep? What do you guys think?
All right, so when we answer this question, let's dive into what neuropathy is first. Remember, neuropathy is just damage to your nerves and your nerves are there to do two main functions. A nerve is a structure that transmits information. It has an outer covering called the myelin sheath that is used to protect it. It sends a signal to an area to either detect or give directions.
One function of a nerve is feeling, which we call sensory. The second is movement, which we call motor. When you want to stand up and walk. Nerves will send a signal to certain muscles that now tell it to fire. At the same time, a nerve is detecting what surface you are standing to tell one muscle to fire a bit more than the other. This is how balance is achieved.
So now your nerves are active, they detect sensations and detective environment, and other things. Your brain throughout the day is constantly active, whether through our daily activities, whether trying to figure out what you're going to eat to what you're going to do later. It is constantly processing information to keep you alive and functioning. If you put in perspective what your brain does it is amazing. So, throughout the day your brain is just overloaded with communication from all different parts of the body to now figure out what it wants to do or needs to do.
At night, what does your brain do? Your brain is now assessing your body, it's like triage. Through the entire day, it's is trying to figure out now how much damage has been done to my body? What systems do I need to turn on and which ones do I turn off to conserve energy. What state is my body in? Has my day been stressful? Have I been eating bad food that needs to be processed? It's trying to figure out a million things so that it can now enter the repair phase?
So with neuropathy your body at night when it is not bombarded with a million things, it discovers that you have damaged nerves in your feet. That the peripheral nerves are just firing like crazy! Your feet feel like ants crawling all over them. That there is a tightness wrapped around your foot like some has a vice over them. These nerves are sending all these crazy crazy signals to the brain. They are telling the brain, Hey, I've got a problem here. It's a five alarm fire, things are going haywire! It's telling you that this problem is serious. Laying down at night, you're not thinking about anything. Your body has way things that are sending information to the brain. All of a sudden you start to feel these symptoms and more.
Think about it. When you are laying down are you walking? Are you moving around and picking up things? NO. You are not doing anything at all!! That is the why your body now says, HEY I HAVE NEUROPATHY!! The more you try to ignore what your body is telling you. I am referring to taking medications that only make you temporary forget that the problem is there. That the issue is only going to get worse. That is the TRUTH!!!
In the end, most people will tell you that neuropathy can NEVER get better. That is FALSE!! We have seen and helped thousands of people. Focus on the positive and find people who want to help you get better. Doing nothing makes NEUROPATHY get worse. Doing something is the only way of moving towards a better life!!!
God Bless
Dr. Thai
Comments