Insomnia Patients Show Abnormal Cortisol Spikes Before Bed and During Night

What was said

"With insomnia patients, they show exactly the same thing, a beautiful rise, in the late morning hours, it starts to come down, but then you see two anomalies. Right before bed, it goes back up. And then in the middle of the night, even when it's starting to rise, it will have this abnormal spike right in the middle of the night too."

Walker described research showing insomnia patients exhibit two distinct cortisol abnormalities not seen in normal sleepers: an inappropriate spike before bedtime when cortisol should be at its lowest, and another abnormal spike in the middle of the night. These patterns may explain both sleep onset insomnia (difficulty falling asleep) and sleep maintenance insomnia (difficulty staying asleep), pointing to physiological rather than purely psychological causes.