Take Your Thyroid Medications as Prescribed
Graves’ hyperthyroidism is treated with an antithyroid drug, which slows down the production of thyroid hormone, says Nguyen.
“To improve symptoms, including those interfering with sleep, treating the Graves’ disease itself is the priority, [because] that’s the underlying trigger,” she says.
Antithyroid medication is not the same as thyroid hormone replacement, which is used for an underactive thyroid. “With Graves’ disease, the body is making too much thyroid hormone, so the goal is to bring those levels down,” Nguyen says.
In a study of people with Graves’ disease who had sleep issues, normalizing thyroid levels with treatment improved sleep scores.
But that doesn’t happen right away: Antithyroid medication may take several months to work.
“Someone with very active hyperthyroidism may need more time to get thyroid levels into a normal range than someone with a milder case,” Nguyen says.
There are other ways to improve sleep during that period, says Nguyen.
“When patients are very hyperthyroid and have symptoms like racing heart, palpitations, tremors, anxiety, and heat intolerance, we often consider giving a beta-blocker,” she says.
Beta-blockers don’t address the root cause of Graves’, but they can slow down the heart rate. “If you don’t have that sensation of the racing heart, that can improve the quality of sleep,” says Nguyen.
Read the full article here
